Two Sets of Business Cards: Responses of Chinese Immigrant Women Entrepreneurs in Canada and Australia to Sexism and Racism

Frances Chiang; Angeline Low; Jock Collins

doi:10.5130/ccs.v5i2.3117

PDF

Published: Aug 5, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/ccs.v5i2.3117

Keywords:

Immigrant women entrepreneurship, intersectionality, racism, sexism, Asian women, Chinese women

Frances Chiang

Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Angeline Low

University of Technology Sydney

Jock Collins

University of Technology Sydney

Abstract

Existing entrepreneurial discourses have been dominated by white middle-class androcentric approach, giving little space to the discussions of racism and sexism experienced by minority women entrepreneurs. This paper aims to fill this gap through an examination of the experiences of Asian immigrant women entrepreneurs in Canada and Australia using an intersectional approach. The key research question addressed in the paper is to what extent, and in what ways, do racism and sexism impact on the entrepreneurial experiences of Asian immigrant women entrepreneurs and what strategies do they use in managing discrimination to protect themselves and their businesses? Four main strategies were derived from our findings, namely, creating a comfortable niche, playing the mainstream card, swallowing the pain, and resisting.

Issue

Vol 5 No 2 (2013)

Section

Articles (refereed)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright Notice

Authors who submit articles to this journal from 31st March 2014 for publication, agree to the following terms:

a) Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b) Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c) Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Open Access Citation Advantage Service). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (ie. a copy of a work which has been published in a UTS ePRESS journal, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the UTS ePRESS publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.

d) Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.

Authors submitting articles to UTSePress publications agree to assign a limited license to UTSePress if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication. This license allows UTSePress to publish a manuscript in a given issue. Articles published by UTSePress are protected by copyright which is retained by the authors who assert their moral rights. Authors control translation and reproduction rights to their works published by UTSePress. UTSePress publications are copyright and all rights are reserved worldwide. Downloads of specific portions of them are permitted for personal use only, not for commercial use or resale. Permissions to reprint or use any materials should be directed to UTSePress.

Author Biographies

Frances Chiang, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Dr. Frances Chiang is a faculty member of the Sociology Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and has taught in the areas of work and occupations, race and ethnicity, social stratification, sociological theories, and health and illness. Her current research focuses on Chinese immigrant women entrepreneurship; race, gender, and class; and the Chinese Diaspora. She is the co-author of “Love as a Hidden Gender Resource in Chinese Immigrant Women’s Entrepreneurship: Case Studies from Australia and Canada” (2010) and the co-editor of From Colonization to Globalization: The Intellectual and Political legacies of Kwame Nkrumah and Africa’s Future (forthcoming).

Angeline Low, University of Technology Sydney

Dr Angeline Low is a Research Affiliate of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She was an awardee of the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at UTS. Her research interests are in entrepreneurship studies, focusing on immigrants and women entrepreneurs. At various times, she was a consultant to the ILO, OECD and the European Union on women's entrepreneurship, and the integration of migrant women in the economy. She was an expert adviser to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Australian study. Besides academic research, Low has had varied careers in senior management and private business. Low was the first woman in Malaysia to be admitted into partnership with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world’s largest professional services firms. She contributes actively on government committees and boards of directors of international not-for-profit organisations.

Jock Collins, University of Technology Sydney

Jock Collins is Professor of Social Economics in the Management Discipline Group at theSchool of Business School, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He has been teaching and conducting research at UTS since 1977. He is Co-Director of the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at UTS. His research interests centre on an interdisciplinary study of immigration and cultural diversity in the economy and society. His recent research has been on Australian immigration, ethnic crime, immigrant and Indigenous entrepreneurship, immigrant youth, ethnic precincts and tourism, multiculturalism, the Cronulla Beach Riots, global teachers, immigrants and the built environment and immigrants in regional and rural Australia and the social use of ethnic heritage and the built environment. He is the author or co-author of ten books, the most recent of which is Global Teachers, Australian Perspectives: Goodbye Mr. Chips Hello Ms. Banerjee (with Carol Reid and Michael Singh) to be published by Springer Press later this year. He is also the author of over 100 articles in international and national academic journals and book chapters. His work has been translated in Swedish, French, Japanese, Arabic, Dutch, Chinese, Portuguese, German, Turkish and Italian. Jock Collins has had visiting academic appointments in the UK, Canada, Sweden and the United States and has consulted to the ILO and OECD.

Article Sidebar

Main Article Content

Abstract

Article Details

Frances Chiang, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Angeline Low, University of Technology Sydney

Jock Collins, University of Technology Sydney