What stands behind the gender gap in entrepreneurship? Untangling the intergenerational parental role.

Yaron Zelekha

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261108

Abstract

This research examines the entrepreneurship gender gap by offering an additional novel explanation for the higher share of men in entrepreneurial activity focusing on intergenerational parental role. Participants (N = 1288) aged 18–81, including 259 actual entrepreneurs, completed questionnaires about entrepreneurship tendency, personality traits and socioeconomic background. The gender gap in actual entrepreneurship continues a significant difference in entrepreneurial tendency, which is developed in the first and the second stages of the entrepreneurial trajectory. When women reach the third stage of entrepreneurial development, the execution stage, they have already acquired a self-perception of an incapable and incommensurate entrepreneurial personality. The results indicate that role modeling behavioral channel significantly accounts for the gender gap in entrepreneurial personality. The results suggest that both parents contribute to women’s’ inferior perception of entrepreneurial personality and that their contribution affects all four aspects of the entrepreneurial tendency. It appears that the impact of fathers’ role modeling is larger than that of mothers, and furthermore fathers transfer other entrepreneurial role models from their side in the family.

Highlights

IntroductionThe gender discrimination is partly explained by several factors, among them: wage discrimination; smaller participation of women in high wages markets; promotion discrimination; difference in working hours since women take a larger share of family tasks; and even a form of discrimination exercised by women themselves, who, often unknowingly or due to fears of negative responses, ask for lower wages men for the same positions [1]
The purpose of this study is to examine whether the entrepreneurial gender gap reflect societal barriers for women to engage in the third stage of entrepreneurial development, actual entrepreneurship, or does it reflect a deeper problem originates at the first and second stages of entrepreneurship development
The current study shows in which of the three entrepreneurial stages the entrepreneurial gender gap emerges and how parents contribute to this gap

Summary

Introduction

The gender discrimination is partly explained by several factors, among them: wage discrimination; smaller participation of women in high wages markets; promotion discrimination; difference in working hours since women take a larger share of family tasks; and even a form of discrimination exercised by women themselves, who, often unknowingly or due to fears of negative responses, ask for lower wages men for the same positions [1]. Under this framework, entrepreneurship is often promoted by many countries as an important source of alternative employment for women [2]. The literature point that the gender gap in actual entrepreneurship does not decrease even in labor

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