Abstract

Women entrepreneurs are in a minority among entrepreneurs in most developed countries. Previous studies have shown a negative relationship between the probability of becoming an entrepreneur and gender. Entrepreneurship is dependent on many different factors. Some affect the entrepreneurship of women and men in similar ways, but others seem to have a different impact on each of the sexes. In this chapter a comparative analysis of entrepreneurship in Poland is broken down by gender. Among the entrepreneurs we can also see signs of occupational segregation.

Key words: gender, entrepreneurship, segregation, Poland

Introduction

Women entrepreneurs are in a minority among entrepreneurs in most developed countries. Previous studies have shown a negative relationship between the probability of becoming an entrepreneur and gender (der van Peter et al., 2012; Parker, 2009). Bonte and Piegeler (2012), and Estrin and Mickiewicz (2011) showed that women were less willing to compete and risk than men, and in countries where the public sector is larger, they were less willing to start companies. In turn, others perceive the source of this negative relationship in the differences between the sexes in education, family conditions and motivation to establish a company (Cowling and Taylor, 2001; Blanchflower, 2004; Minniti and Naude, 2010).

In the literature, on the one hand (Gardawski, 2013; Goedhuys and Sleuwaegen, 2000; Minniti and Naude, 2010) the importance of education for entrepreneurship is emphasised. Among others, Shim and Eastlick (1998), using data on Spanish business owners, showed that entrepreneurs have a higher education level compared to other respondents. However, at the same time the educational differences between men and women entrepreneurs were not significant in their view. On the other hand, some scholars suggest that the lack of formal education can be compensated by the experience of the individual (Nafziger and Terrell, 1996; Langowitz and Minniti, 2007; Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Oberschachtsiek, 2012). Additionally, Lazear (2004, 2005; Wagner, 2006) draws attention to the fact that entrepreneurs have very varied experience and skills. It is worth emphasizing here that most women entrepreneurs are far less experience based on years of work than male entrepreneurs (Lee and Rendall, 2001; Minniti and Naude, 2010).