FORWOMEN: the stereotypes of motherhood that hold back enterprise (and how to overcome them)
Entrepreneurship is often described as a choice of vocation, project autonomy and professional growth. But for many women it can also become a choice of necessity: a viable path when employment is discontinuous, does not offer adequate opportunities or is difficult to reconcile with life time. FORWOMEN - FOsteRing WOMen's Necessity ENtrepreneurship, a research project of national interest (PRIN 2022) financed by the Next Generation EU programme and coordinated by Professor Claudia Manzi, lecturer in Social Psychology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, fits into this space of possibilities, between aspirations and constraints. The results of the project were presented at the seminar 'Femminile Plurale', held on Wednesday 28 January 2026 at the Catholic University.
FORWOMEN stems from a concrete question: what holds back and what can support women's entrepreneurial intentions, especially in phases of employment vulnerability? To answer this question, the research team adopted a multi-method approach. In a first qualitative phase, women entrepreneurs and unemployed women were involved in focus groups to bring out motivations, obstacles and real needs. In a second phase, questionnaire-based experimental studies conducted on a large sample of female jobseekers assessed the effect of specific cultural frames on intentions to start a business.
The point that emerges strongly goes beyond the best-known gender stereotypes. Alongside the still widespread representation of the entrepreneur as a predominantly male figure, FORWOMEN highlights an equally incisive factor: stereotypes linked to motherhood. In particular, the project identifies as particularly relevant the intensive motherhood model: a set of beliefs that attributes to mothers expectations of total dedication, constant presence and almost exclusive responsibility in ensuring the well-being of their children. When this model becomes central to self-representation, starting a business tends to be perceived as less compatible: not only for practical reasons, but because it changes the representation of what it is legitimate to desire and feasible to do. In other words, before being a competence problem, it can become an imaginability problem.
Hence the third phase of the project: turning results into action. In collaboration with the Women at Business platform, the research team designed and implemented SHE-IN -Supporting Her Entrepreneurship & Innovation, a training intervention aimed at women in labour transition who are looking for a job or a career change. The idea is simple and ambitious at the same time: to flank the training tools for orienting oneself and planning one's professional future with explicit work on the cultural frameworks that often act as 'automatic pilot', limiting choices and expectations.
A first round of meetings involved 28 participants. The intervention offered guided activities to recognise the influence of stereotypes, particularly those related to intensive motherhood, and to explore more integrated ways of reconciling family and work life, based on the sharing of care responsibilities and the legitimacy of personal aspirations. The impact evaluation, set up with an experimental protocol, yields encouraging results: a trend towards greater awareness of stereotypes, an increased sense of efficacy and signs of stronger intentions towards business start-ups emerges compared to a control group.
