A 'She-Cession'? The Disproportionate Effects of Covid-19 on Entrepreneurship Among Women

Résumé du livre

Despite some recent advances, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in launching new ventures. The persistence of this gap has challenged scholars and policymakers to identify and address the mechanisms underlying this inequity, especially when natural and human-generated crises arise -- a condition that has repeatedly led to unraveling progress for women entrepreneurs. Cognizant of this recurring circumstance, our study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic in order to develop and test new theory concerning the manner in which crises heterogeneously impact the activities of men and women entrepreneurs. Using a large sample of new-firm registrations in China, we find that the pandemic led to a significant drop in the overall rate of entrepreneurial activity. Importantly, embedded in the average rates of business venturing, it is clear that firms founded by women dropped far more than those by men, evidenced by an additional decline of 27.6%. Applying role congruity theory, we find that the household burdens shouldered by women increase the incongruity between female gender roles and entrepreneur roles, leading to substantial differential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurial activities between genders. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of education in attenuating the negative disproportionate effect. These findings increase our understanding of the unique challenges confronted by female entrepreneurs in times, leading to key insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.