How policy positions women entrepreneurs: A comparative analysis of state discourse in Sweden and the United States

•We compare how women's entrepreneurship policy in Sweden and the USA positions women entrepreneurs.•We consider the contexts of two different welfare states—social democratic and liberal.•We base the study on Foucauldian discourse analysis and post-structural feminist theory.•In spite of welfare state differences, both countries' policies recreate women's secondary position in society.•The imperative of economic growth takes precedence over gender equality.

This research compares the positioning of women entrepreneurs through entrepreneurship policy over two decades (1989–2012) in Sweden and the United States. Given Sweden's uniquely family-friendly welfare state, we could expect different results, yet in both countries we find a legacy of discourse subordinating women's entrepreneurship to other goals (i.e., economic growth) and a positioning of women as ‘other’, reinforcing a dialogue of women's inadequacy or extraordinariness without taking full account of the conditions shaping women's work experience. From this analysis we derive a conceptual schematic of assumptions presented through the discourse, aligning and distinguishing the U.S. and Swedish approaches.