Portraits of Russian Women Entrepreneurs: Identification and Ways of Leadership

Entrepreneurship has developed in Russia during the past two decades, which is a short time to develop a firm business culture. Women are still a minority among entrepreneurs globally, also in Russia [Verhovskaya, O. and Dorokhina, M. (2008) GEM. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Executive Summary, Russia 2007, www.gemconsortium.org, 30.9.2008]. Our study focuses on Russian women entrepreneurship by means of an interview and photographs of 10 women entrepreneurs in the St. Petersburg area. We ask, how do they identify themselves in the current economic situation. Further, we ask if there is a specifically Russian type of women entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial identification. Finally, in the study it is also elaborated the interviewed women entrepreneurs' perceptions concerning the Russian market economy and its transition, as well as their views for the future. This study results show that the women entrepreneurs make sense of their identity as leaders using expressions of autocracy and democracy. Moreover, they express a subjectively rich sense of their own entrepreneurship with no signs of marginality, and had an optimistic outlook on the future with wishes to expand and develop their businesses. Methodologically, the study contributes in combining the interview data and photograph analysis.