A gender perspective on national measures promoting innovation and entrepreneurship

Public programs and measures aimed to support business, innovation and entrepreneurship in Sweden are by tradition targeted manufacturing companies in order to develop technology and to make industry more competitive. Such initiatives are following a gender blind norm, in the way they define their fields of action, and also in how they are presented, for example regarding language and psychological accessibility. Research shows that women don‟t feel themselves addressed by these initiatives or that it concerns their companies. We think that a deeper understanding about why women are not reached, or attracted, by official measures taken to support business growth, can guide us in developing new models, methods and tools to stimulate and facilitate a climate for growth of women‟s entrepreneurship and long-term improve the conditions for women to create, run and develop their enterprises. We exemplify this through cases from three national R&D programmes financed by VINNOVA (The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) and KK-Stiftelsen (the Swedish Knowledge Foundation), both governmental authorities and research funders that aims to promote growth and prosperity throughout Sweden. In the paper we discuss official efforts aimed to support business development and growth. In what way are they gender marked? What structures are active on different levels? What is the consistence between ambitions from the program managers and how presentation of the programs is received by the target groups? Who are reached and who participates?