Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Entrepreneurship—Toward a Decolonized Critical Praxis

Abstract

ABSTRACT How do colonial and sociocultural structures shape women's transitions from STEM education into entrepreneurship in Nigeria? This paper challenges linear, individualized accounts of entrepreneurial entry by conceptualizing STEM entrepreneurship as a structured process of constrained mobility produced through interacting systems of coloniality and gendered social ordering. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with women in STEM education and entrepreneurship, the study shows that transitions are governed by a layered legitimacy regime spanning cultural, social, economic, technological, mentoring, curricular, instructional, and institutional domains. These forces operate sequentially across the life course, producing cumulative and anticipatory exclusion in which women adjust aspirations in response to expected barriers. We demonstrate that masculinity functions as an epistemic infrastructure embedded within STEM systems, shaping competence, authority, and valuation. By advancing a coloniality of STEM transition systems framework, the paper reframes entrepreneurship as a postcolonial field of power rather than an individual outcome.