"Mãe empreendedora": entre a promessa de uma subjetividade emergente e a frustração performática

The paper investigates how the contemporary figure of the “mompreneur” (mother entrepreneur) constructs and circulates an emergent female subjectivity that promises emancipation through flexible, autonomous work while often resulting in heightened performance demands and psychosocial strain. Set against a backdrop of gains from earlier feminist movements and persistent gender inequalities in wages, leadership roles, domestic workload, and mental health, the study situates mompreneurship within neoliberal culture’s expansion of entrepreneurial ethos to all life spheres. The authors aim to understand the meanings attached to this category and its implications for women’s subjectivities, focusing on the tension between the ideal of harmonious work–family “conciliation” and the practical realities of overload and frustration.

The paper traces the coinage and diffusion of the term “mompreneur” (Cobe & Parlapiano, 1996) and discusses the power of naming in constituting subjectivities (Hacking, following Foucault). It notes the absence of an equivalent male category (e.g., “dadpreneur”), highlighting persistent sexual division of labor (Hirata & Kergoat). Empirically, the term’s web prevalence surged from ~120k Google hits in 2010 to millions by 2019 (Krueger), spawning media, courses, podcasts, and organizations that frame mompreneurship in inspirational tones. Three drivers commonly touted in media and the “mompreneurial webspace” (Krueger) are: (1) digital technologies enabling home-based, networked work (often glossing over access and cognitive barriers); (2) reconfiguration of work toward self-employment and precarity, aligning with Foucault’s “entrepreneur of the self”; and (3) cultural pressures for women to excel simultaneously in motherhood, career, sexuality, and sociability (Leal). The review critically examines the ideal of the multitasking “superwoman,” its romanticized imagery, and its masking of high performance demands (Rizek & Leite; Leal). Theoretical framing draws on Foucault’s shift from control-repression to control-stimulation, Han’s “society of performance” and positivity leading to self-exploitation and burnout, and Crary’s 24/7 temporality eroding boundaries between work and non-work.

Exploratory qualitative study employing Foucauldian discourse analysis. The authors analyzed posts, comments, and materials in the closed Facebook group Maternativa (a Brazilian network/startup for maternal entrepreneurship created in 2015) to identify predicates and tensions in mompreneur subjectivities. They focus particularly on testimonial and [desabafo] (venting) posts and a case post titled “Vá ser feliz! Seus filhos agradecem!”. To contextualize the field, they report descriptive data from: (a) an internal 2015 Maternativa survey (~100 participants) profiling members’ motivations and difficulties; and (b) the 2017 “Empreendedoras e seus negócios” survey by Instituto Rede Mulher Empreendedora (800+ women), as well as official statistics (PNAD/IBGE) and prior literature. The study does not specify a formal sampling frame or time-bounded corpus; it is positioned as the beginning of an exploratory research program.

- Ideal–reality gap: While mompreneurship is framed as emancipatory—enabling autonomy, flexible schedules, proximity to children—the lived reality often entails intensified workloads, boundaryless time (24/7), and psychosocial distress. Many report exhaustion from juggling domestic/childcare tasks with business demands, sleeping little and working at night. - Performative imperative and individualization: Discourses in the community frequently attribute success/failure to personal traits (willpower, talent, resilience), aligning with neoliberal meritocracy and masking structural constraints (hostile labor markets for mothers, patriarchal domestic divisions, scarce support networks, bureaucratic/financial barriers to small business growth). - Contradictory prescriptions: The analyzed post (“Vá ser feliz! Seus filhos agradecem!”) mobilizes the imperative of happiness as a performance resource (self-care to optimize motherhood), receiving widespread endorsement but also critiques pointing to unequal gendered burdens and lack of support networks. - Gendered division persists: Absence of an equivalent “dadpreneur” category and community comments underscore that responsibilities for children and domestic management fall disproportionately on mothers; calls arise for partnership models rather than individual conciliation. - Empirical context and data points: • Maternativa 2015 survey (~100): >90% in South/Southeast; ages 25–40; 78% were not entrepreneurs before motherhood; motivations include “stay closer to child” (19%), “be owner of own time” (16%), “more quality of life” (16%), “do what I like” (45%); 28% resigned after childbirth; 9% lost job; difficulties include time management (17%), being commercially competitive (12%), and balancing family and work (11%). • RME 2017 (800+): 55% mothers; among mothers, 75% became entrepreneurs after maternity; top motivation is conciliation of work and family; majority relatively privileged (53% class B; 79% higher education), with racial disparities (non-white women concentrated among informal/MEI; only ~20% of black/brown women in small/micro companies). • Broader stats cited: men’s wages 29.7% higher (PNAD 2017); women spend 18.1 hours/week on domestic tasks vs. 10.3 for men (IBGE 2018); 78% of surveyed women entrepreneurs report stress symptoms (2017 VI Fórum Empreendedoras).

Findings show that the mompreneur subjectivity, while marketed as a path to reconcile professional fulfillment and active motherhood, is interlaced with neoliberal rationalities that demand perpetual optimization, self-responsibilization, and visibility of success. The tension between the “conciliation model” (which often leaves domestic roles unchanged) and the needed “partnership model” (rebalancing domestic labor) is evident in member critiques. Han’s “society of performance” and Crary’s 24/7 time illuminate how autonomy becomes self-exploitation under an imperative of positivity and constant availability, producing fatigue, guilt, and a sense of failure when ideals are unmet. The prominence of individualist explanations in community discourse can obscure structural labor market hostility to mothers and entrenched gender inequalities, thereby weakening collective, political critiques and actions that could transform conditions for working mothers.

The paper contributes by revealing how the emergent figure of the mompreneur is quickly subsumed into meritocratic and performative logics: under a veneer of emancipation and empowerment, it reinforces self-entrepreneurship, happiness-as-performance, and individualized accountability, often culminating in overload and frustration. The authors call for critical awareness—“discover what you are being led to serve”—and resistance to the seductive performative imaginaries, highlighting the necessity of structural and political approaches (e.g., gender partnership in domestic labor, supportive labor policies) rather than solely individual adjustments. The article does not delineate an explicit future research agenda; it positions this as an initial, exploratory inquiry into the discourses of maternal entrepreneurship.

The study is explicitly exploratory and limited by space, precluding fuller development of contextual factors. The discourse analysis centers on a specific online community (Maternativa, Facebook), without a formal sampling frame or temporal delimitation of posts, which may limit generalizability. Reported survey figures (Maternativa 2015; RME 2017) serve contextual purposes and come from convenience samples, not necessarily representative of all Brazilian mompreneurs.