Female Entrepreneurship in the Gaza Strip: Exploring the role of Social Capital

In the occupied territory of the Gaza strip, the notion of organisation is stretched and reshaped. Women often find that their challenges are multiplied in such contested contexts and entrepreneurship becomes more a necessity than an aspiration. Such circumstances problematise the idea of meritocracy and of entrepreneurial ability as an innate trait. We argue that agency is situation-dependent and constrained by social structures, whilst stopping short of regarding individuals as merely passive actors. We, therefore, require a framework to explore the complex forces which female entrepreneurs must negotiate in Gaza. Influenced by Bourdieu, in this paper we propose social capital as a vital facilitator of female entrepreneurship in Gaza and have constructed a framework to be utilised for empirical research. The fieldwork is due to be conducted during the summer of 2020, so at the conference, we may be able to present some early findings and our initial reflections on the framework.