Female MSME Practitioners and Digitalization from a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This study focuses on female MSME practitioners’ use of digital technology and what it means to them. The feminist intersectional approach is used to answer how gender, religion, social class, daily activities, and place of residence shape the characteristics of women entrepreneurs. This study is guided by this research question ‘How do women interpret the business they are running, and what is the urgency of digitization in running their business?’ Participants were female MSME practitioners from Kangean and Paciran sub-districts selected using snowball sampling. Data analysis was carried out interpretively using a feminist standpoint by including the researcher's knowledge as a reference. The feminist intersectional approach helps identify female MSME practitioners' religiosity and life orientation in the two regions in running their businesses. Furthermore, unlike other studies that find digitalization a necessity in business, this study finds that digitalization is not urgent for women. Religiosity and life orientation formed from the intersection of many factors around them make female MSME practitioners embrace their gender role. They accept and even believe that developing an MSME business is not the main purpose of their life. Even they believe that they need to avoid digital technology due to its negative impact.