مطالعات اجتماعی روانشناختی زنان (Sep 2021)
The Effect of Gender Gap on Women Entrepreneurship in Selected Countries
Abstract
The success of women entrepreneurs not only brings economic benefits to communities but also has many social and cultural benefits. However, the gender gap in various aspects of social life, including economics, education, health, and politics, has given women have fewer opportunities for entrepreneurship and role-playing in the community development process. In this regard, the present study uses the panel data approach and the generalized method of moments (GMM) to investigate the effect of economic, educational, health and political gender gaps on women's entrepreneurship as the highest type of their economic participation in the development process in two groups of developing and developed selected countries during the period 2017-2019. The results showed that economic, educational, health and political gender gaps with different estimated coefficients have a negative and significant effect on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of developing and developed selected countries. In addition, the study of the effect of other model variables on women's entrepreneurship showed that the fertility rate has a negative and significant effect and financial development and development of information and communication technology have a positive and significant effect on women's entrepreneurship.IntroductionMost of the studies focusing on identifying the determinants of women's entrepreneurship focus on the impact of personal factors and personality and behavioral characteristics and the effect of environmental factors such as gender inequality due to social, political and economic structure on it are less studied. Hence; the present study, with a comparative approach and by using econometric methods, tried to review and determine the influence of four aspects of the gender gap, including economic, educational, health and political gender gap, on women entrepreneurship in two groups of selected developing and developed countries in the period 2011-2019. Explaining that the "selected countries are made up of 28 developing countries as a sample group and 26 developed countries as a control group, which according to empirical evidence, developing countries face more gender discrimination and less female entrepreneurship." Conversely, developed countries see less gender discrimination and more women entrepreneurship. Of course, the existence of required data to study the subject and access to them also played a role in selecting the countries to be studied. Research MethodologyThe present research is applied-developmental from the perspective of purpose. In terms of nature and method, it is descriptive-analytical. In terms of “research conduction”, it has used multivariate regression analysis, panel data approach, generalized method of moments and Stata software to estimate the effect of the gender gap on women's entrepreneurship. The necessary information for laying the theoretical foundations and reviewing the research background by the documentary method has been collected by referring to domestic and foreign books, articles and dissertations. Experimental data of research variables are also secondary statistics. The research model is a dynamic panel data type ResultsBased on the results of estimating the impact of the economic gender gap, educational gender gap, health gender gap, political gender gap and fertility rate on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries are negative and significant. Also, based on the results of estimating the impact of financial development, information and communication technology development and the intermittent dependent variable (women's entrepreneurship in the previous year) on women's entrepreneurship is positive and significant. DiscussThe effect of the economic gender gap on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is negative and significant. Because one of the main reasons for the failure of entrepreneurs is the inadequacy of their financial capital and the widening of the economic gender gap by depriving women of equal opportunities to get a decent job and income, as well as creating obstacles to the use of credit and payment facilities by financial institutions declined financial capacity of women entrepreneurs and increased their dependence on men and their entrepreneurial power has decreased.The effect of the gender education gap on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is negative and significant. Because gender education gap increase by reducing the women’s opportunities to achieve high educational levels and other educational courses will decrease their skills and abilities to properly understand business opportunities and use perceived opportunities to create new businesses and entrepreneurship. At the same time, increasing the gender gap in education has increased the inability of women to control and self-govern economic resources and reduce the return on their physical capital and reduce their entrepreneurial power.The effect of the gender health gap on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is negative and significant. Because women's health includes their physical, mental, social, cultural, emotional and spiritual well-being, increasing the gender gap in health and survival reduces physical and mental strength, reduces life expectancy, reduces savings and capital motivation of women and entrepreneurship of them.The effect of the political gender gap on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is negative and significant. Because increasing the political gender gap means reducing the influence of women on the choice of leaders, policies and public administration at the local and national levels, which has led to increasing disregard for women's rights in the relevant laws and regulations and reduced social opportunities, jobs and entrepreneurship of them.The effect of the fertility rate on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is negative and significant. Because increasing fertility rates reduce women's leisure time to engage in economic activities outside the home and reduce their ability to be entrepreneurs.The impact of financial development on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is positive and significant. Because easy and low-cost access of entrepreneur women to the credits and facilities of the financial sector has been accompanied by providing a deficit of financial resources and solving their liquidity problem, and has reduced production costs and increased the profitability of women entrepreneurial businesses.The impact of information and communication technology development on women's entrepreneurship in both groups of selected countries is positive and significant. Because the development of information and communication technology by facilitating women's access to broadband Internet, receiving digital education and easy access to government services has helped to create new job opportunities and reduced business and sales costs and increased the tendency, passion and ability of women for entrepreneurship.The effect of the intermittent dependent variable (women's entrepreneurship in the previous year) on women's entrepreneurship is positive and significant, which is consistent with theoretical foundations. Because, the increase in women's entrepreneurship in the previous period indicates a suitable context for this work, the extension of these favourable conditions to the next period has led to an increase in women's entrepreneurship again. Therefore, it is proposed to create equal educational opportunities for women, facilitate women's access to financial facilities, pay micro-facilities to small businesses with women management, support women's trade unions and reform the payment system in proportion to the benefits regardless of gender to reduce the gender economic gap and create a conducive environment for women's economic participation.
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