From fixing women to fixing systems: rethinking women’s entrepreneurship interventions in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Gender equality has become a central concern in entrepreneurship policy and practice, yet inequalities in participation and access to resources persist. While scholarship shows that these inequalities stem from structural dynamics in entrepreneurial ecosystems, less is known about how women’s entrepreneurship interventions are orchestrated across ecosystems and what implications this has for gender equality. Drawing on a multiple-case study of two regional entrepreneurial ecosystems in Germany and the UK, based on 41 interviews and field observations, we identify four intervention types: (1) skill-building and funding, (2) representation and visibility, (3) women’s grassroots collectives, and (4) collaborative ecosystem-building. We further reveal four mechanisms through which interventions challenge or reproduce gender inequality: normalization, legitimation, coalition-building, and collective reconfiguration. The study develops a classification framework for women’s entrepreneurship interventions and advances theorization of inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems by highlighting hybrid orchestration as a pathway to systemic transformation.