Are Men Better Entrepreneurs Than Women? That's the Perception.

A big problem with the gender gap in entrepreneurship is the nagging feeling that men are better suited for it.

learn more about Scott Shane

By Scott Shane

Shutterstock.com

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Are men really better at entrepreneurship than women? People generally believe that the answer to this question is "yes," even if they don't say so. That's what three separate academic studies by different authors that all involved the gold standard of scientific experiments – randomized controlled trials - showed. The perception that men make better entrepreneurs than women might account for the stubborn gender gap in entrepreneurship that shows no signs of shrinking, and has important implications for policymakers' efforts to close it.

In the first study, University of California Santa Barbara sociologist Sarah Thébaud conducted three randomized experiments (two in the United States and one the United Kingdom) of the effect of gender on perceptions of entrepreneurial competence and the quality of new venture ideas. Students were asked to evaluate the competence of the entrepreneurs and the quality of the ideas from descriptions of new ventures and the entrepreneurs founding them. A male or female name was assigned to otherwise identical descriptions. In both the U.S. and U.K. experiments, and for both mundane and innovative ventures, the judges rated the business ideas and competence of male entrepreneurs higher.

In the second study, researchers from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, conducted two experiments. In the first experiment, 521 adults watched two videos of startups pitching at a university-based business plan competition, in which the researchers randomly assigned male or female voices to narrate otherwise identical pitches. In the other experiment, 194 participants watched a single video in which the entrepreneur's gender was randomly assigned. In both experiments, the judges were significantly more likely to invest in the otherwise identical ventures pitched by men.

In the third study, my colleagues at Case Western Reserve University and the Eindhoven University of Technology and I randomly assigned male or female names and pictures to invention disclosures and descriptions of inventors and asked to 239 technology licensing officers at U.S. universities to assess the degree which they would try to dissuade the inventor from starting a company to exploit the invention. We found that technology licensing officers were significantly more likely to dissuade the inventor from starting a company to exploit an otherwise identical venture by an otherwise identical inventor if the inventor were female rather than male.

Related: Are Small-Business Owners Immoral If They Pay Low Wages?

Across three sets of researchers, three different aspects of entrepreneurship, and six different experiments, being female was a negative. A female name, picture, or voice reduced the odds of getting an investment, lowered the judges' assessment of the entrepreneur's competence and the quality of the venture idea, and increased the likelihood that a key stakeholder would dissuade the entrepreneur from starting a business. Because all of these studies were randomized experiments, the cause of these negative assessments can only be the entrepreneur's gender.

So why did being female result in more negative assessment? It wasn't the biases of men towards women. In none of three studies did the assessments differ for male and female judges, but was present for both male and female assessors.

It also probably wasn't the result of gender stereotypes of an older generation. In the first study, all of the judges were young. In the second and third studies, there was no effect of the judges' ages on the patterns observed.

All three studies suggest that people form perceptions of what an entrepreneur looks like, and he is male. That (conscious or unconscious) perception leads men and women to judge male entrepreneurs more highly than female entrepreneurs.

The $64,000 question is whether people form those perceptions because most entrepreneurs are men or whether most entrepreneurs are men because people hold those perceptions. Either way, the studies suggest that gender inequity in entrepreneurship will be very difficult for policymakers to eradicate.

Related: Why Rates of Entrepreneurship Remain Depressed

Scott Shane

Professor at Case Western Reserve University

Scott Shane is the A. Malachi Mixon III professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University. His books include Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live by (Yale University Press, 2008) and Finding Fertile Ground: Identifying Extraordinary Opportunities for New Businesses (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005).

Related Topics

Editor's Pick

The Dark Side of Pay Transparency — And What to Do If You Find Out You're Being Underpaid
Thinking of a Career Change? Here Are 4 Steps You Can Take to Get There.
A Founder Who Bootstrapped Her Jewelry Business With Just $1,000 Now Sees 7-Figure Revenue Because She Knew Something About Her Customers Nobody Else Did
Everything You Need to Know About Franchise Law
Business News

'Crying Northwestern Kid' Turned His Viral Fan Moment Into a Successful Harvard Admissions Essay. He Says the Experience Taught Him About Empathy.

Six years ago, Phillips was watching No. 8 Northwestern take on No. 1 Gonzaga during March Madness when he became a meme.

Starting a Business

How To Sell on Etsy in 2023: A Comprehensive Guide

Want to start selling your handmade goods online? This article outlines how to start and grow your business using Etsy.

Collaboration

The Only Woman in the Room? That Was Me. Then I Built a Network of Career-Boosting Champions and Everything Changed.

There's an inspirational network of smart women and allies all around us. We just have to be smart about finding them. Here's how.