Rural Virginia Women's Small Businesses: Ethnicity and Linkages

In 1992, Candida Brush used Carol Gilligan's arguments about the interconnectedness of women's lives to encourage a more careful analysis of women's small business activities. Gilligan's perspective suggests that women's social orientations are directed more toward cultivating strong relationships rather than achieving independence (separateness) and position. Indeed, women's realities show multiple connections, and, in the case of women business owners, Brush suggests that the connections are often with family members, social acquaintances and community organizations. In central Virginia's agricultural heartland, African American and Anglo American women own and operate a variety of businesses, many of them highly successful. They are the subjects of this analysis of the linkages that rural Virginian women experience as a consequence of their business activities. The linkages are categorized into spatial, economic, formal and informal networking, familial, developmental and community involvement. The research also identifies differences between African American and Anglo American women business owners in the region. While the literature makes some broad generalizations about the impacts of some of these linkages, little in fact is known about how participation in small business ownership in rural settings can influence women's lives and the subsequent ties to family, home and community. This research begins an important discussion of ethnic variations in linkages fostered by business ownership.