ABSTRACT
This chapter explains two primary criteria for the entrepreneurs included in the study: they had to be female, and they had to identify themselves as minorities. Since entrepreneurship has been a lifeline for populations facing employment discrimination, impediments to business ownership threaten the life chances, and the very survival, of minority women and their families. The chapter aims to interview entrepreneurs who represent a range of industries and geographic locations across the United States. It describes that typical expectations for business owners have embedded, albeit often invisible and unarticulated, assumptions about social status characteristics. The chapter focuses on how those business owners who are outside the current normative expectations negotiate the assumptions. It includes inter-judge agreement to yield quantifiable results. The chapter concludes that minority women are uniquely positioned to solve social problems through better business. The centrality of social values is evident in the identification of opportunities, business policies and practices, management of resources, and use of profits.
