The Gendered State of Business: Gender, Enterprises and State in Israeli Society

Whether the state provides different entrepreneurial opportunities for women and men and how is an issue rarely discussed in the growing literature concerning gender and organizations. Integrating gender and organization literature with political theories of the state, this paper compares women's entrepreneurship in one setting (Israeli society) across two time periods: before and after the foundation of a sovereign state. Our analysis identifies three manifestations of the gendering state through which it moulds business opportunities of men and women entrepreneurs. We examine how these manifestations: the delegation of economic actors, managing interactions between individuals and institutions, and administering a bureaucracy, shape access to capital and the structure of networks. The article contributes to the existing scholarship by extending the understanding of direct and indirect influence of the state on the reproduction of the image of the ideal entrepreneur and on gender differences in entrepreneurial activity.