Call for applicants
PhD scholarship: Female Entrepreneurship and the State in Asia
Starting date: negotiable but preferably by 1 March 2026
Overview
Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government (in collaboration with the DCU Ireland India Institute) invites applications for a fully funded, four-year PhD scholarship on female entrepreneurship focused on one or more of the following countries: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Laos, and Nepal.
The successful candidate will receive a stipend in line with Irish Government guidelines, plus additional funding for fieldwork and conference travel. Supervision will be provided by Prof. Abel Polese and Prof. Jivanta Schotti.
Supervisors: Prof. Abel Polese and Prof. Jivanta Schotti
Host Institution: Dublin City University, School of Law and Government
Institute Collaboration: DCU Ireland India Institute
Scholarship Duration: 4 years
Additional Support: Fieldwork grants and conference funding
Deadline for application is 10 July 2025
List of documents for application and the address are below this call.
Rationale and possible directions for the research
Across the globe, women face inferior income opportunities when compared with men. Women are less likely to work for income or to actively seek such work; they have fewer opportunities for business expansion or career progression; they are disproportionately more likely to be homemakers yet household labour is not remunerated nor considered to be ‘work’. Women make up around half of the economically active population, but are underrepresented in various fields, including entrepreneurship. According to a study by McKinsey (McKinsey Global Institute, 2015), if women continue to participate in the labour force at lower rates, the economy could lose out on over $28 trillion in potential gains, causing global GDP to reach only an estimated $108 trillion by 2025. Conversely, it has been estimated that if women had equal representation in all labour markets, GDP would have increased to approximately $136 trillion by 2025. According to World Bank data, in 2022 the global labour force participation rate for women was just over 50% compared to 80% for men. Globally, female labour force participation has not increased greatly over the last three decades and male/female disparities remain stark especially across large swathes of Asia.
Asia is regarded as the growth engine for the world economy. Women have played an increasingly significant role in the economic arena, emerging as entrepreneurs and leaders. In 2017 more than half of the 56 women on the Forbes’ 2017 list of female self-made billionaires were from Asia. However, the reality of female entrepreneurial activity differs substantially across Asia. The region includes some of the most and least entrepreneurial countries for women, ranging from high startup rates and smaller gaps in investment activity and size of investment between men and women to the reverse.
The proposed research should focus on economic entrepreneurship and its role as a means and outcome of female emancipation and empowerment. This includes political engagement and leadership. Taking the concept to be a socially embedded process the consortium draws on area expertise from across the length and breadth of Europe and Asia as well as multiple disciplinary perspectives (including political economy, sociology, anthropology, business and management studies, history and cultural studies). A geographical focus should be indicated covering one or more of the following countries included in a new EU-funded project: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Nepal.
The research project could involve a selection of case studies ranging from a focus on the individual actor, micro businesses or the large business organisation and the ways in which the state enables or impedes women entrepreneurs. Candidates are also encouraged to consider intersections with informality theory. Informality, as “the art of bypassing the state” (Polese 2023). This has been often conceived merely in terms of either unregulated forms of labor whose objectives were subsistence and survival in the “underworld”, or actual illegal business spanning from unofficial earning strategies and unregistered activities to smuggling, bribing, and corruption.
The project could be located within the so-called fourth wave of scholarship on female entrepreneurship where far greater importance is accorded to the socio-economic, political, market, and institutional contexts (Mc Adam and Cunningham 2021) within which entrepreneurial action occurs. A key concept of this growing body of research is that ‘entrepreneurial ecosystems’ vary drastically from one context to another. These systems are shaped by differing legal frameworks, educational access, varying gender-sensitive national policies along with differing cultural and religious norms.
Overall, we seek to deepen understandings of Asian women entrepreneurs and the heterogeneity observed within their entrepreneurial activities. The project will seek to refine conceptualisations of women’s entrepreneurship in Asia, addressing its complexity and diversity to foster more nuanced understandings of the phenomenon.
If you are interested, please send by the deadline the following list of documents to
Please submit the following by 10 July 2025:
Curriculum Vitae
Cover Letter (max 2 pages) highlighting your relevant experience or expertise
Research Proposal (max 2,000 words) focused on one or more of the target countries
Master’s Transcripts (or expected completion date; thesis must be submitted before PhD enrolment )
Two Referee Contacts (we will only approach referees for shortlisted candidates)
In one single PDF file to to
benjamin_bisimwa.cisagara@lu.lv
cc to abel.polese@dcu.ie and jivanta.schottli@dcu.ie
NB: We welcome the use of new technologies (for instance for literature search or language and typo-check). However, AI-generated proposals/applications will be automatically rejected.
If you have any questions to which the answer cannot be find here on through a google search, you can write to abel.polese@dcu.ie