Manifesting Millions: How Women’s Spiritual Entrepreneurship Genders Capitalism

Women’s spiritual entrepreneurship offers a new way of practicing capitalism in keeping with values traditionally coded as “feminine.” Operating as both a movement and a classification, spiritual entrepreneurship represents a capacious set of business practices centered on the belief that making money can be spiritually fulfilling. This possibility is actualized when spiritual entrepreneurship focuses on the traditionally feminine ideals of teaching and nurturing and utilizes spiritual practices such as meditation, manifesting, and mindfulness. This article explores the logics and rhetoric of women’s spiritual entrepreneurship in three prominent categories where these discourses are found: multi-level marketing, self-help products and guides, and women’s business coaching. Examples from each of these categories demonstrate how women’s spiritual entrepreneurship operates in the contemporary United States through shared ideals and religious practices.