Negotiate your space
26/01/2026
Sarah De Smet on women's entrepreneurship in interaction with social norms and the importance of being allowed to be different.
Women's entrepreneurship is often presented as the solution to poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. But what happens when we truly listen to women’s stories? Not to policy plans, predefined indicators, or project targets, but to the women themselves. What can we learn from the perspectives, doubts, and everyday realities of women entrepreneurs?
This is exactly what Sarah De Smet did in her doctoral research, where she interviewed women entrepreneurs across different countries worldwide. Her study brings nuance to the debate: entrepreneurship can foster empowerment and social change, but it can also reinforce vulnerabilities when policies and projects promoting women's entrepreneurship are poorly adapted to the cultural context or rely too heavily on Western frameworks.
We spoke with Sarah after her defense. Below is a brief interview.
You didn’t start from a traditional academic question. How did this research unfold?
“When I was working for various NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) across the globe, I noticed that successes were often presented the way funders wanted to see them. Yet too little attention was paid to what people truly needed. I wanted to understand why some initiatives or interventions failed, and where our blind spots were. That led me to take on research projects at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, exploring themes such as entrepreneurship as a lever for the empowerment of young women in the Global South, the African Diaspora… We touched on many topics, but one thing quickly became clear: the social network surrounding women determines whether entrepreneurship becomes a source of empowerment or not.”
"We often focus on the individual, but forget that family, the broader community, and social norms also shape what is possible."
What was the fundamental question you wanted to explore in your PhD?
"Women's entrepreneurship is often promoted as the ultimate solution to poverty, gender inequality, and social exclusion. But how do women experience it themselves? Some use entrepreneurship to explicitly challenge social norms, while others use it to balance work and family without questioning the existing order. It is far less straightforward and much more nuanced than is often suggested."
This is why Sarah’s research does not start from Western-imposed success indicators, but from the voices of women themselves. Reflexivity, the ability to consciously reflect on one’s own position within existing social structures, is the key concept here.
"The way women think about the structures they are embedded in is directly reflected in their entrepreneurship."
One of your studies looked at affluent women in India. What did you find most striking?
"It was a unique context. These women grew up in affluent families and had every opportunity: education, freedom of choice, ambitions. But as soon as they entered the workforce, and especially when they became mothers, things began to shift."
Discrimination only became really visible after marriage and motherhood. At home and in the workplace, these women hit a wall. Family expectations, cultural norms, and traditional gender roles suddenly became very pronounced, and women often had to put their ambitions aside. For many, entrepreneurship became a way to navigate these tensions of not being able to work in corporate life while having the qualifications and ambitions. It was not necessarily to 'change' the system but to do something with their professional ambitions while not challenging gender norms too much.
"One of the women in India put it perfectly:
‘We were raised as boys, but married as girls.’”
‘We were raised as boys, but married as girls.’”
Your research highlights just how much context matters.
"Absolutely. Gender norms don’t always play a dominant role. In Belgium, where I spoke with women entrepreneurs of African roots, discrimination based on race was mentioned much more. I noticed clear differences between first- and second-generation women entrepreneurs. First-generation women often adapt and feel the need to prove themselves, following the model of the typical white male entrepreneur. The second generation, on the other hand, more actively challenges that image and seeks to bring greater diversity to that prototype."
In Ethiopia, it became evident how Western gender projects can sometimes miss the mark.
"Many interventions are well-intentioned but are based on Western ideas of empowerment. In reality, women often pursue entrepreneurship not to challenge gender norms, but to earn an income and ease family tensions. For them, entrepreneurship isn’t an ideological statement."
If we have to look for one common thread throughout your research, what would that be?
"Listening. Really and actively listening. And acknowledging that entrepreneurship doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone, and isn’t accessible to everyone."
Entrepreneurship can be a discourse to create change, but only if women themselves define what success means. This requires space for difference and a willingness not to mainstream everything or force it into a single box.
"Follow your own entrepreneurial path, guided by your own reflexivity."
Have there been moments when you had to adjust your idealism?
"Definitely. As an idealist, you want to find solutions, but I encountered many contradictions. Sometimes it’s hard for women to recognize racism or structural exclusion when it’s embedded in their everyday lives. Yet they’re not unaware of it. This makes designing policies more complex but also more fascinating."
"Often, the solutions are hidden where the contradictions are."
What questions remain open for further research?
"Many! During the conversations, contradictions kept on emerging. I found myself asking how the identity of these women entrepreneurs relates to societal change. And how interventions can be designed to support women entrepreneurs in a way that genuinely values differences and offers space to discover their entrepreneurial paths? I think we’re still not very good at valuing differences as a society. Difference still seems too often perceived as a threat rather than an enrichment."
With her doctoral research, Sarah De Smet makes an important contribution to the Entrepreneurial Empowerment research program. She demonstrates that empowerment has no blueprint, but emerges in the interaction between the individual and society, between local realities and Western ambitions.
Who is Sarah De Smet?
Anyone who talks to Sarah De Smet quickly notices that her research is closely tied to her personal journey. Even before her doctoral studies, she worked for many years with NGOs on poverty alleviation and gender inequality. She taught in the Bachelor's program in International Organisation and Management (courses such as Intercultural Communication Skills and Global Challenges) and worked as a researcher at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences on various projects related to diverse forms of entrepreneurship. Time and again, she encountered the same question: why do well-intentioned interventions sometimes fail to work as hoped?
This question became the starting point of a research journey that took her to Ethiopia, Belgium, and India, and ultimately led to her doctoral dissertation, ‘Negotiate your space: Global narratives of women entrepreneurs dealing with social norms’, which she successfully defended in December 2025.
