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Understanding Support Ecosystems for Black Women Entrepreneurs: A Cross-National Comparison of Entrepreneurs in the United States and Brazil
Over the past decade, Black women have increasingly engaged in entrepreneurship across the globe. For example, Black women comprise the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the United States with a 70% increase since 2020 (McDonald, 2024). Similarly, 52% of Black entrepreneurs in Brazil were women in 2018—up from 30% in 2013 (SEBRAE, 2015; Siquiera et al., 2018). Moreover, in locations such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, Black women’s entrepreneurship continues to be on the rise (e.g., Black Business and Professional Association, 2021; Pozniak, 2020).
Despite this growth, there remains a dearth of academic studies on Black women’s experiences in entrepreneurship. For example, although Bruton and colleagues (2023) conduct a systematic review of entrepreneurship research focused on the experiences of underrepresented minorities in the United States, the authors did not cite any studies pertaining to Black women. In a similar vein, Machado (2024) notes only one study that focuses on Black women in her systematic review of entrepreneurship and gender research in Brazil. As these reviews suggest, the intersectionality of gender and race (and the explicit focus on Black women) remains an understudied area in entrepreneurship research. Without a focus on the experiences of Black women, the literature on women entrepreneurs, specifically, and entrepreneurship more generally will remain ‘incomplete’ (Golden-Biddle & Locke, 2006).
To address this gap between theory and practice, we seek to answer the following research questions: 1) How does engagement with various support systems impact Black women entrepreneurs’ success? 2) How do Black women entrepreneurs engage with and find support across relational, community, regional, and national levels? 3) How do Black women entrepreneurs’ experiences of engaging with and finding support differ across national contexts?
We address this dearth by examining the support systems of Black women entrepreneurs in the United States and Brazil. These countries have similar histories of entrenched racism and legacies tied to the Transatlantic slave trade. Our cross-national, interview-based approach enables us to advance understanding about how common racialized experiences of Black women entrepreneurs affect their social and economic outcomes. Moreover, the proposed study represents one of the few studies that will offer insight into the lived experiences of Black women entrepreneurs.