Build a Better Business

How do women entrepreneurs build better businesses? Governments must ease up regulations and help create stronger work-family policies. Are there certain policies that can promote women’s engagement in high-growth forms of entrepreneurship, not just business creation in general?

In the article below, that's the question posed by author Sarah Thebaud, Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. She says:

In a recent analysis, I show some surprising new evidence that work-family policies may be of critical importance. I found that when women have access to policies like paid leave or subsidized childcare, their odds of starting a venture oriented toward economic growth and job creation are higher. When they don’t, their odds are lower.

Read more:  Stronger work-family policies help women entrepreneurs build better businesses

Where Are the Women Entrepreneurs?

Former Kauffman Dissertation Fellow Sarah Thébaud (pictured) recently wrote an insightful article for Newsweek about the lack of women in entrepreneurship:  Why Are There So Few Women Entrepreneurs?

She states:

... disparity is the fact that women are much less likely to lead new business enterprises. On average, men are nearly twice as likely as women to launch a new business. And women are primary owners of only about 28% of private firms.

According to Thébaud, the key reason why there are so few women entrepreneurs is an unconscious cognitive bias that is likely to play an important role. She says, "I find that women entrepreneurs are at a disadvantage because people are prone to doubt that they possess the kinds of traits and skills that we stereotypically associate with entrepreneurship."

Read:  Why Are There So Few Women Entrepreneurs? and related piece, The Gender Stereotypes of Entrepreneurship

Screenshot courtesy:  University of California, Santa Barbara, Sociology