Women entrepreneurs: jumping the corporate ship and gaining new wings

This article offers a post hoc analysis of the reasons why women leave corporate careers to enter self-employment. Four case studies of women entrepreneurs from North East England are presented.The subjective narratives of these female entrepreneurs highlight the complex nature of their career transition motivations and the issues they confronted while reaching the decision to begin new ventures. It transpired that original motivations for entering self-employment were not fully realized, however, this was compensated for by positive experiences in terms of personal and professional development and a new-found independence and control. Finally, it is suggested that the `Career Transition Motivation Framework’ is a useful way of understanding the complexity of women’s career transition experiences.

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