Crossovers--Female Entrepreneurs Who Enter Male Sectors : Evidence from Ethiopia

Alibhai, Salman ; Buehren, Niklas ; Papineni, Sreelakshmi ; Pierotti, Rachael

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: GENDER;    ENTREPRENEURSHIP;    FIRMS;    SECTOR CHOICE;    OCCUPATIONS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8065
RP-ID  :  WPS8065

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Occupational sector selection is animportant determinant of returns for female entrepreneurs.If sectors that are traditionally male owned could providean opportunity to earn higher returns, then what factorscould encourage women to cross over into these sectors orprevent them from doing so? To examine this question, thispaper uses data from Ethiopia to compare the firmperformance and characteristics of women in male-dominatedsectors (crossovers) with women who are infemale-concentrated sectors (noncrossovers). The findingsshow that female-owned enterprises in male-dominated sectorsperform better on average than those in female-concentratedsectors, with firms achieving higher profits and having moreemployees. The descriptive results show that crossovers donot necessarily have more education or greater skills thannoncrossovers. Rather, women’s relationships and networks,especially those provided through male relatives, and beingopportunity-driven entrepreneurs appear to influence thelikelihood of entering a more-profitable, male-dominatedsector. The study explores the implications and challengesof encouraging female entrepreneurs to enter male-dominatedsectors, in an effort to provide new insight into how theearning gap between male and female entrepreneurs can be closed.