Entrepreneurship in life plans of students of high schools: Gender differences

Abstract

The attitude of students to entrepreneurship is analyzed. It is established that only one person out of five would like to devote his life to entrepreneurship under certain conditions. The study revealed a gender imbalance. In particular, a significant part of female students refers to entrepreneurship positively. Such an attitude is formed in spite of the fact that the female students admit that persons engaged in entrepreneurial activity might violate the law. Such a violation is explained as a reaction of normal people to the imperfection of legislation in the field of entrepreneurship. Young male students consider the entrepreneurs as people who are striving to enrich themselves in every way (not to pay taxes, etc.), and not as people who are trying to do something useful for the country and people. Moreover, the older the male students are, the more indifferent they are to entrepreneurs. A different pattern can be applied to the girls. Namely, the older the female students are, the more positively they relate to individuals engaged in small and medium-sized businesses. At the same time, paternalistic position is more characteristic of male students. Activities to stimulate students’ interest to entrepreneurship are proposed, as well as the measures to increase students’ financial literacy.