Enterprise and Small Business Principles
Gender and enterprise
Research investigating women’s ownership of small businesses essentially dates from the mid-1970s. Prior to the pioneering studies of Schreier (1973) and Schwartz (1976), the contribution women made to the small firms sector either as business owners in their own right or, more commonly, as providers of labour to family-owned firms, was largely unrecognised. The growth in interest in the small business sector, coupled with a rise in the number of women moving into self-employment, triggered a number of important research studies investigating the issue of gender and enterprise. This research effort continues to this day, although the issues and themes being addressed by researchers have changed and developed over time. While many of the major studies have emanated from the US and Western Europe, research investigating the characteristics and experiences of women business owners has been drawn from a wide range of countries and socio-economic contexts. This chapter highlights some of the key themes which have emerged from these studies. Following this introduction, the chapter starts by documenting the increase in the numbers of women entering self-employment and business ownership. This is followed by an overview of the research studies that have explored women’s business ownership, highlighting the early exploratory studies and more recent analyses drawn from a variety of country contexts.
More recent studies have focused on the broad issues of management in female - owned businesses, in particular the relative access to finance for female entrepreneurs. Increasingly sophisticated studies have attempted to explain the differing business financing profiles of male and female business owners. While most studies have focused on women’s access to and usage of debt finance, in particular bank finance, increasing attention is currently being focused on private equity and venture capital. In a new development within the literature, research has not only focused on women’s access to equity finance, but also on investigating women as providers of equity capital to other entrepreneurs. As a key theme within the literature, this chapter considers the main research evidence relating to the gender, entrepreneurship and finance nexus.
Despite the development of an important research literature on women business owners, some researchers argue that the study of female entrepreneurship remains a neglected area (Baker et al., 1997). While the volume of research that considers gender is still relatively small, particularly in relation to that which considers the small business sector as a whole, there is evidence that the quality of the research has developed a greater sophistication and methodological maturity. In addition, key critiques from within the entrepreneurship subject domain (Ahl, 2002) and from the broader social sciences (Mirchandani, 1999) have outlined the need for future research to contain stronger theoretical engagement. The chapter concludes by considering the reasons why the study of female entrepreneurship has been relatively neglected and evaluating the benefits that can accrue from critical perspectives on the gender and entrepreneurship research literature.
