challenges for women entrepreneurs: creating entrepreneurial ecosystems

© 2016 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Women’s Entrepreneurship Research

Alex KrauseProgram Officer in Research & Policy

June 22, 2016Global Entrepreneurship Summit

www.kauffman.org


first things first

Women entrepreneurs: data

• Labor force participation • Gender composition of entrepreneurs• Rate of new entrepreneurs

Challenges for women in entrepreneurship• Financing• Mentors• Cognitive biases• Family dynamics

What can we do?

• Public policy• Entrepreneurship support organizations• Look at the gig economy• Societal shift


demographic shift

• Labor force participation rate (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor)

• Educational attainment by women (U.S. Census Bureau)

• Declining marriage rates, delayed parenthood (Matthews, Brady 2016)


millennial workers

• ESOs looking to attract young entrepreneurs (ICIC 2016)

• Effect of Great Recession (Finn, Donovan 2013)

• Egalitarian couples (Pedulla, Thébaud 2015)


GENDER OVERVIEWresults of the Kauffman Index


Lack of diversity in

funding

Mentors are in short supply

Masculine perception of

eship

Family dynamics challenges


the financing gap


mentors in short supply

• Mentors typically tend to be older men who have been entrepreneurs in the past.

• Limited entrepreneurs who can relate to the specific challenges of women and minority entrepreneurs.

• Mentorship is critical in helping professional developing successful entrepreneurs.


cognitive biases

Discrimination in hiring, pay, performance

Entrepreneurship is a stereotypically masculine trait

Perceptions of women as less ambitious, less committed to their work


Gender

WorkParenthood

family dynamics


why is it so hard to be a mom entrepreneur?

Traditional work isn’t working.

Mothers seek entrepreneurship as an alternative.

Entrepreneurship also isn’t working.


how can we address these challenges?

Public policy

Entrepreneurship support organizations

Advocacy

Future research


public policy

• Address parental leave, subsidized childcare

• Women are better able to start opportunity-based businesses when policies are supportive (Thébaud 2015)

• Policymakers celebrate women entrepreneurs


changing nature of work

• New platforms for work are rapidly creating a new gig economy. (Zysman, 2016)

• Many gig-workers must work multiple jobs/have unreliable hours.

Challenges for these flexible workers are similar to those of entrepreneurship.


entrepreneurship support organizations

• Provide family-friendly spaces• Develop mentoring programs• Counseling services to improve

family/spousal dynamics• Celebrate women entrepreneurs


societal shift in promoting women entrepreneurs

The problem• There are greater

challenges faced by women entrepreneurs than by men entrepreneurs• Masculine Perception of

Entrepreneurship • Family Dynamics• Financial Constraints• ESO Issues

• Missed growth opportunity for the economy

Lenses considered

•Labor force participation and demographic changes•Changing nature of work•Millennials in the workplace•Cognitive biases

Recommended changes

•Public policy•Create support that truly supports women entrepreneurs•Celebrate women entrepreneurs

Alex Krause


Which programmatic characteristics lead to better outcomes for diverse groups in which contexts?

Does being born out of a community vs. placed into a community impact the effectiveness of diversity inclusion?

What does diversity inclusion mean in a successful entrepreneurship program? (Attraction, retention, programmatic characteristics, etc.)

How can we draw the line between getting diversity and maintaining quality vs. meeting a diversity quota?

Who is joining women’s-only programs?

What are the motivating factors attracting programs to building in a women and minority focus? ?

future research


thank you.www.kauffman.org


#GES2016 | @AlexKrause | @EdSteidl@KauffmanFDN | @Microsoft | @MicrosoftMIC

Ideal state

• It is 2026 and women entrepreneurs no longer struggle to raise capital for their ventures compared to men, perceptions of their competence are based on actual performance / merits, and they are equally represented in entrepreneurship. Being female is no longer a barrier to be managed in entrepreneurship.

Group task

•Working back from that moment, describe the social changes that made this possible. •What social and systems changes made this possible?•Which problems had to be addressed and what programs were designed to address them? •What did people try that didn’t work? •Which common assumptions had to be challenged?

challenges for women entrepreneurs: creating entrepreneurial ecosystems

Small Business & Entrepreneurship