According to the study published in the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, the existence of the four types of gender stereotypes -male, female, androgyne and non-differentiable- is still on. The process of socialization makes men to be identified with the male gender and women with the female one, but it is not always right. There are feminine men and masculine women, and a 25% of people -both sexes- report to have an androgyne gender identity, they identify themselves with both feminine and masculine traits.
One of the conclusions of this study is that the role of the businessperson is mostly related to the male and androgyne gender stereotypes. As a result, women think they are not socially expected to launch a business, so they are threatened by the stereotype. This is a plausible reason for the gender gap in the creation of businesses: “women are not born with less entrepreneurship attitudes, but the process of socialization is what leads them to having lower levels of self-efficacy for business” says Anna Pérez-Quintana, researcher of the UVic-UCC.
Also, the study states that if the social image of androgyne traits of entrepreneurs was promoted, such as creativity or innovation, the gender gap in business creation would probably be reduced. Also, according to the research, a change in paradigms would be necessary to raise awareness on certain female-stereotyped traits as positive values for entrepreneurship, such as flexibility, loyalty, sensitivity towards other peopleʼs needs, versatility…, which donʼt have to be contradictory to the figure of the entrepreneur. “Maybe by promoting these values, we would reach a less destructive and less unfair economic system”, says UVic researcher Anna Pérez-Quintana, co-author of this study.
760 students of Business Administration and Management were interviewed
This study, which analyses the persistence of gender stereotypes in the current Catalan society as well as its influence in the figure of the entrepreneur, has been carried out by Anna Pérez-Quintana, Joan Carles Martori and Rafa Madriaga, from the UVic-UCC and Esther Hormiga, from the UB. To develop this study 31 characteristics -favorable and unfavorable for the figure of the entrepreneur- were selected. The field work consisted on interviewing 760 students from the first and third year of the bachelor degree in Business Administration and Management of the University of Barcelona, who were asked to quantify each of those features, according to their belief whether they corresponded more to a man, woman, to themselves as future businesspeople or to an entrepreneur.
After analyzing the data the researchers reached the conclusion that gender stereotypes persist and they could identify the most characteristic traits for each gender. Data shows that the entrepreneur is more identified with androgyne traits (creative, innovator, optimistic, active, energetic, who makes efforts), and masculine (confident, risky, leader, ambitious, competitive), while people with a female gender identity show a weak or void will to become entrepreneurs.
According to the data collected in the annual labor force survey for 2016, the amount of people owning a business in Catalonia rises to 529.800. 66% of these are men and 34% women (around 180.000). This figure includes those who have employees and those who donʼt, as well as members of cooperatives.
This research is released some days before the International Womenʼs Day, which defends equality of opportunities for all women.
