Gender, entrepreneurship, and firm performance: Recent research and considerations of context

Abstract

Conventional wisdom asserts that women-owned firms underperform firms owned by men. Studies reveal, however, that women and men do not differ in measures of firm survival or profitability when we control for factors such as industry, firm size, and firm age. Gender differences persist, however, in measures of firm size and growth. Recent research suggests that this continued discrepancy is due to gender differences in resource attributes combined with differences in motivations, goals, and attitudes. Thus, the performance of women-owned firms needs to be viewed within the context of the goals and objectives that women establish for their firms as well as where they are in their life cycle.