Les femmes chefs d'entreprise: Le cas français

Abstract

Who are women entrepreneurs today? How many are they? How does a woman become an entrepreneur? Why start a company? This article answers these questions and several others on the basis of statistical data provided by the employment surveys of the French National Institute of Statistics, or INSEE, and of interviews of women entrepreneurs in the Parisian region. The article concentrates on women entrepreneurs who have employees. If women create or continue an enterprise, it is not to find a better use of capacities insufficiently recognized in their previous professions, but because they want to run a business. Entrepreneurship is the continuity of success. These women show traditionally female qualities in the choice of the activity field and of the types of management. Mostly active in the service sector, they are more successful than men in that field. Access to the function of head of company through succession is an exception to this rule: the professional path is more often sustained than chosen, the fields of activity are more diverse, and the satisfaction is lesser.