‘Women for all Seasons’: Return Migration, Rural Femininity, and Women's Entrepreneurial Legitimacy in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This study examines how rural returnee women entrepreneurs construct entrepreneurial legitimacy through the lens of rural femininity. Drawing on 21 in‐depth interviews with rural returnee women entrepreneurs in Vietnam and reflexive thematic analysis, this study reveals a gendered‐spatial process of entrepreneurial legitimacy construction, through which rural femininity is reformed. The findings show that although embracing ideals of rural femininity and finding fulfillment in rural life, returnee women experience ambivalent recognition and legitimacy frictions that undermine their entrepreneurship and well‐being. In response, they reorganize entrepreneurial legitimacy by working through, within, and beyond rural femininity. As their ventures gain recognition, women acquire greater entrepreneurial authority, social impact, and scope to reshape rural femininity. This study advances research at the intersection of gender, migration, rurality, and entrepreneurship by showing how rural femininity and entrepreneurial legitimacy dynamically interact as returnee women work across tradition and modernity within a non‐Western, collectivist, and patriarchal context.