Gender Equality and Entrepeneurial Spirit

From Wikigender.org

The decision to launch onself as an entrepeneur in the competitive business world may come down more to gender than

Gender stereotypes may influence people's choice of vocation

had been previously thought. The stereotypical qualities assumed to be necessary for success in being an entrepeneur - risk-taking, self-confidence and aggressive attitudes - have been proven to influence men and women's decision to become an entrepeneur according to researchers at the University of Missouri, USA.

The Study

Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management, headed the team of researchers who surveyed undergraduate business students. They gave the students mock news articles about entrepreneurship to read, and later gave them a comprehension test, and also asked them to complete a scale about entrepreneurial intentions. In the control article, there was no mention of gender or gender differences in entrepreneurship. In other articles, the masculine and feminine stereotypes were subtly presented or directly emphasized.

Turban and his colleagues found that when the masculine stereotype of entrepreneurship was subtly presented, men had higher entrepreneurial intentions than women, and both men and women were similar to the control group. But when masculine characteristics were strongly linked with entrepreneurship, they found that women had higher entrepreneurial intention scores while men had lower.

Results and Implications

Although the qualities needed to become an entrepeneur may not hinge on one's sex, the stereotypes and perceptions play a strong role in shaping people's professional vocation. As Daniel Turban, professor and chair of the Department of Management argues:

"One sex is not inherently more qualified than the other; unfortunately, the underlying societal stereotypes associating entrepreneurship with masculine characteristics may influence people's intentions to pursue entrepreneurial careers. An interesting result of our study is that both men and women reported similar intentions when entrepreneurship was presented as gender neutral. This suggests that common gender stereotypes can be nullified."

Gender Dynamics of Entrepeneurship

Turban argues that although entrepeneurship is perceived as depending on stereotypical male attributes, in fact, other 'female' characteristics are also needed such as - building relationship with others, caring and nurturing and humility. In order to stop the persistaence of gender stereotypes in male-dominated professions such as entrepeneurship may require more open discussion on what attributes are in fact required for the profession: since men and women appear to be subconsciously influenced by widely held stereotypes, it may be time to use more gender neutral language in order to encourage more women into former male bastions.