Women and Entrepreneurship: A Blog Anthology

In the past year, Kauffman Foundation bloggers have written about women entrepreneurs in-depth. The blog posts explore the specific challenges faced by women entrepreneurs including work-life balance, overcoming stereotypes, access to funding, and other assorted barriers. The blog posts also examine the benefits of women entrepreneurs, including their potential to increase economic growth. Here is our anthology of posts on the subject of women and entrepreneurship. We will be updating the post as more material becomes available. (Updated May 25, 2016)

Are Tech Companies Ahead of the Curve on Parental Leave?

Major tech companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have recently given generous parental leave to their employees. But is it economically easier for tech companies, which are predominantly male, to offer generous parental leave packages given men are less likely to take parental leave?

Right on, Sister. Four ways to keep the conversation on working moms going

A collection of articles —from Forbes to Glamour—that show how women of the working press furthered the conversation on the challenges of working moms and the unique hardships of women entrepreneurs.

New Report Examines the Economic Contributions of Working Mothers

New report by Kauffman researchers Emily Fetsch and Alex Krause examines the challenges facing mothers in the workforce and how policy can help working mothers contribute to the economy.

Women’s Entrepreneurship Research – What We’re Funding

The Kauffman Foundation put out a call for proposals for research in Women’s Entrepreneurship earlier this year as a part of our New Entrepreneurial Growth Initiative. This post summarizes the research the Foundation chose to fund.

Women of Color in Entrepreneurship: New SBO Data and What it Means for the Economy

Kauffman researcher Emily Fetsch explores new SBO data and the representation of women of color as business owners.

Welcoming Women and Parents: Reimagining Startup Culture

How can startup culture be more inclusive to women and parents? To begin breaking down the barriers facing women, more women-led startups and founders are needed to advocate for family-friendly policies.

How Can Healthier Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Help Women Succeed?

Women entrepreneurs are essential for a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem, and healthy economic growth. This outlines four indicators for measuring a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem with regard to women: density, fluidity, connectivity, and diversity

The Gender Stereotypes of Entrepreneurship

Kauffman researchers examine work by Sarah Thébaud on gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship. It is abundantly evident that we associate entrepreneurship with stereotypically masculine traits, and this is damaging to women entrepreneurs (and, by extension, the economy as a whole). We have a choice of how to depict entrepreneurship in popular culture, and changing course would yield clear, tangible benefits for women, business entry and success, and economic growth. 

Why the Lack of Women Leaders is a Problem for Businesses

In 2007, women-owned businesses accounted for 28 percent of all businesses and only 16 percent of all employer-owned businesses. Research has highlighted three challenges for women-owned firms: a lack of mentors, their view of success and failure, and a financing gap. This blog post examines the lack of women leaders in the business, why it is problematic to the business world, and what can be done to fix it.

Female Entrepreneurs Key to Economic Growth

Women are largely seen as an untapped resource when it comes to driving economic growth — not just in countries where the basic rights of women are a struggle, but in the United States as well. A new study released by the Kauffman Foundation suggests that accelerating female entrepreneurship could have the same positive effect on the U.S. economy that the large-scale entry of women into the labor force had during the 20th century.