SOCIAL POLICIES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: INSTITUTIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF GENDER GAPS ACROSS 24 COUNTRIES

Abstract

Across industrialized countries, women are significantly less likely to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity than their male counterparts. Building on theories of entrepreneurship and institutional perspectives on gender inequality in the labor market, this paper develops and tests an institutional theory of gender inequality in entrepreneurship. It is proposed that in countries where social policies effectively integrate women into traditional employment, women are less likely to be “pushed” into entrepreneurship as a result of work/family conflict. As a result, contexts with such policies are likely to have larger gender gaps in the odds of being engaged in entrepreneurial activity, but smaller gender gaps among established business owners in their motivation for starting a business, orientation toward growth and propensity to innovate. Results from a multilevel analysis of survey data from 24 countries largely support this contention: generous public funding for childcare is associated with larger gender gaps in the odds of being an entrepreneur, but smaller gender gaps in labor market-driven entrepreneurship and the use of new technology. A moderate amount of state-funded leave for mothers is also associated with smaller gender gaps in business size and in the odds of introducing a new product/service to the market.