Bridging Gender and Innovation: Techno-Feminist Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs in the Digital Economy

Abstract

The fast developing global digital economy has reshaped entrepreneurship and created new opportunities of innovation, social inclusion, and sustainable growth. In spite of this, the gap in the accessibility of digital technology, capital, and leadership by both genders still remains limiting to the involvement of women in innovation ecosystems. This paper uses a techno-feminist approach to understand how women entrepreneurs are closing the gender gap through utilizing digital technologies to be socially and economically empowered. Based on a mixed-method research design (digital ethnography and quantitative analysis of the global indices of innovation and entrepreneurship) the study explores 60 digital startups led by women in Asia and Africa. The results indicate that female-founded businesses realize, on average, 22 percentage points greater social impact and 15 percent greater workforce diversification than male-led ones, but they continue to be hindered by the inability to secure venture capital and the institutional backing of these initiatives. Qualitative evidence shows that ethical design, inclusiveness, and sustainability are the principal innovation principles of women-led ventures. Such results confirm techno-feminism as a viable model of digital transformation that is inclusive. The work draws the conclusion that gender-responsive models in building funding, feminist digital literacy programs, and fairness in involvement in innovation policy can help to speed up the case of women as creators of equitable digital economies. Over time, techno-feminism would turn digital entrepreneurship into a driver of inclusive development, as well as, a value in creating structural gender equity.