ABSTRACT
Women’s access to work parity is a concern throughout the world. One example is the scarcity of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). At the intersection of high-technology and entrepreneurship, women founders of STEM firms face many challenges to attaining personal and professional wellbeing. For example, entrepreneurship is largely considered a “masculine” endeavor, with social norms favoring those who fit expectations. Similarly, STEM fields are fraught with stereotypes unsupportive of women workers. Consequently, women are underrepresented in high-technology entrepreneurship. To increase gender parity, it is necessary to understand the challenges that women entrepreneurs encounter in STEM. This chapter explores the careers of women entrepreneurs in nanotechnology in the United States and the challenges they face. Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary field that incorporates all four areas of STEM. Recently, women’s participation in STEM has increased, and little is known about the implication on their wellbeing. This chapter identifies the backgrounds of entrepreneurs in nanotechnology and the outcomes for their firms, including acquisition, bankruptcy, and innovation. I posit that the variance in such firm outcomes is linked to how the founders define wellbeing. This chapter explores how the education and careers of nanotechnology women entrepreneurs shape their conceptualization of wellbeing.
