EXTENDED SUMMARY

In recent years, the opportunities provided by digitalization have significantly transformed the field of female entrepreneurship. Social media platforms like Instagram offer women not only tools to promote and manage their businesses but also spaces to reconstruct their identities through visual and narrative performances. Despite their empowering potential, these platforms often reinforce dominant gender norms and aesthetic expectations. This study examines how female entrepreneurs in Turkey respond to, negotiate with, and reshape gender norms on Instagram, constructing hybrid entrepreneurial identities in the process.

Rather than viewing digital entrepreneurship as a purely economic endeavor, the study conceptualizes it as a site of ideological negotiation, emotional expression, and socio-political engagement. Drawing on Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and cyberfeminism frameworks, it investigates how gendered identity performances are curated and made visible in digital spaces.

According to Butler (1990, 1993), gender is not a stable essence but a repeated social performance. This notion is particularly relevant to platforms like Instagram, where identity is continuously constructed through visuals, captions, and audience interactions. Complementing this, cyberfeminism thinkers such as Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti suggest that digital media can both reinforce and challenge gender norms by enabling alternative subjectivities and modes of resistance. The study also engages with literature on digital entrepreneurship, which emphasizes how women must often perform complex gendered roles—mother, nurturer, leader, brand—to remain visible and credible online.

To explore these dynamics, the research employs a qualitative netnographic method, based on Kozinets’ (2002; 2010; 2015) adaptation of ethnography for online communities. Four Instagram accounts belonging to Turkish female entrepreneurs from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds were selected using purposeful sampling. Criteria included having at least 5,000 followers, consistent posting, storytelling elements, and self-identification as an entrepreneur. These women worked in domains such as wellness, digital coaching, parenting guidance, and feminist activism.

Data was collected over six months (September 2024 –February 2025) through non-participant observation. Posts, captions, stories, hashtags, and user interactions were archived and anonymized in accordance with ethical research standards. Thematic coding was conducted using NVivo software, with analytical attention paid to both discourse and visual aesthetics. Key themes included emotional labor, feminine leadership, aesthetic resistance, and self-regulation.

Findings reveal that these entrepreneurs engage in multifaceted identity performances that simultaneously conform to and contest dominant gender expectations. Their content is not uniformly resistant but reflects a strategic negotiation with femininity and entrepreneurial authority.

One recurring theme was emotional labor, expressed through vulnerability, care, and intimacy. Entrepreneurs frequently used poetic language, metaphors, and personal storytelling to establish emotional connections with followers. These performances align with Hochschild’s (1983) theory of emotional labor, reframed as “affective entrepreneurship” in the digital context.

Another central theme was motherhood, which was reimagined not just as a personal role but as a leadership and ethical position. Rather than reinforcing passive maternal stereotypes, participants highlighted boundaries, self-awareness, and emotional sovereignty—demonstrating that care work could also be a form of feminist resistance. In addition, posts addressing issues such as generational trauma, justice, and body politics revealed a politicized use of everyday content. The notion of digital sisterhood emerged prominently, especially among participants who facilitated community-building through workshops and rituals. These accounts cultivated horizontal relationships, promoting collective healing, resilience, and feminist solidarity.

However, navigating Instagram also involved managing platform-imposed norms. Algorithms favor polished, emotionally resonant content, which requires a balance between authenticity and strategy. Empowerment messages like “You are the leader of your life” coexist with neoliberal discourses of self-management—raising critical questions about the commercialization of feminist language and affect.

Overall, participants presented hybrid identities—part entrepreneur, part nurturer, part activist—constantly negotiated through digital performances. Their content reveals that digital entrepreneurship entails more than selling a product; it is a practice of identity-making that is ideological, emotional, and aesthetic in nature.

This study contributes to feminist digital scholarship by highlighting how women use social media not only to build businesses but also to construct new forms of subjectivity and critique. Through emotional storytelling, aesthetic resistance, and community-based narratives, they challenge conventional femininity while navigating the tensions of visibility, branding, and authenticity.

By integrating gender performativity and cyberfeminism perspectives, the research underscores the political and ideological dimensions of digital entrepreneurship. Future studies might explore how algorithmic structures, platform economies, and cultural differences shape feminist agency and resistance in online spaces.