Gender and self-enterprise in the social media age: a digital double bind

The profound growth of independent employment in post-industrial economies has paralleled a vibrant ethos of self-enterprise – one captured by the prodding assertion that ‘we’re all entrepreneurs now.’ Amidst ubiquitous technologies of production, distribution, and promotion, the ideal of entrepreneurialism has taken on a political valance: that is, individuals are ostensibly ‘empowered’ to pursue their passion projects in digital environments. This project brings gender politics to the fore of contemporary discourses of online entrepreneurship. We draw upon in-depth interviews with 22 independently employed female professionals, the majority of whom work in digital media/creative fields, to understand the role of social media in their self-starter careers. Many interviewees were compelled to develop and present online personae that conformed to traditional prescriptions for femininity – a quandary that we term the digital double bind. An updated version of the career impasse that female workers face in offline work environments, the digital double bind is structured through three distinct, yet interrelated, social media imperatives: (1) soft self-promotion; (2) interactive intimacy; and (3) compulsory visibility. Participants’ reflections on these imperatives emerge from the traditionally masculine-coded nature of entrepreneurship and its markers of success, which require female workers to assume additional risk and engage in invisible labor. The digital double bind is thus a testament to enduring structural inequalities that render female self-enterprise an inferior category of entrepreneurship; promises of digitally enabled meritocracy, we conclude, are largely superficial.