The importance of business events for rural women in business

Abstract

Rural communities in the Global North have faced many challenges in recent decades, including a reliance on agriculture or other primary industry which may be in decline, poor infrastructure, an ageing population, outmigration of young/educated/skilled workers, rising unemployment and a lack oC'connectivity" (Bock, 2016; Newton et al., 2004; Siemens, 2010). For business owners in rural areas, challenges include market size, the availability of labour, a lack of time, access to urban centres and infrastructure gaps such as banks and transport networks (Siemens, 2010). While many rural areas now have access to technological infrastructure such as the internet and broadband, it is frequently uneven in terms of speed and reliability (McCoy et al., 2018). Business people considering lifestyle move to a rural area may be dissuaded because of slower broadband speeds and/or intermittent service, thereby limiting entrepreneurial activity and exacerbating the geographical marginalization of rural communities. Research has been carried out on rural business owners (see, for example, Bock, 2016; McCoy et al., 2018; Siemens, 2010) and on women in the agricultural sector in rural areas (Haslam McKenzie, 1998; Sattler Weber, 2007). Other studies have investigated festivals and other community events in rural areas, finding they often have beneficial social outcomes, and can contribute to building and supporting the communities that host them (see for example Derrett, 2003; Gibson & Connell, 2015; Jepson, 2019; Mahon & HyyryEiinen, 2019; Sage & Flores, 2019) . However, there is a significant gap in our understanding of the nexus of rural women, business owners and business events, and this chapter aims to shed light on this overlooked area of critical event studies.