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The Self-Employment of Men and Women: What are their Motivations?

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  • W. Allen
  • William Curington

Abstract

Do men and women carry different motivations for entering self-employment? Earlier researchers have suggested that, as primary care givers for children and families, women face a more stringent time constraint relative to men. Thus, where men see self-employment as a chance for greater financial opportunity, women see a chance to take work that allows more time at home. This paper investigates this hypothesis using unique data that allow analysis of individual self-employment as a function of traditional economic and demographic variables as well as variables that partially capture individuals’ opinions and perceptions of pecuniary and nonpecuniary aspects of entrepreneurism. Results suggest that men who choose self-employment are influenced principally by pecuniary concerns, while women are influenced principally by family concerns and by the opinions of their family, friends, and peers. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

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  • W. Allen & William Curington, 2014. "The Self-Employment of Men and Women: What are their Motivations?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 143-161, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabre:v:35:y:2014:i:2:p:143-161
    DOI: 10.1007/s12122-014-9176-6
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    4. Elham Taheri & Salih KatircioÄŸlu & Ayhan Tecel, 2024. "Gender Differences in the Impact of the Informal Economy on the Labor Market: Evidence From Middle Eastern Countries," Evaluation Review, , vol. 48(5), pages 865-892, October.
    5. Jaime Lara Lara & Leobardo Pedro Plata Pérez, 2021. "Satisfacción con la vida y condiciones de empleo en México," Economía: teoría y práctica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, vol. 55(2), pages 109-126, Julio-Dic.
    6. Stjepan Srhoj & Bruno Skrinjaric & Sonja Radas & Janette Walde, 2019. "Closing the Finance Gap by Nudging: Impact Assessment of Public Grants for Women Entrepreneurs," Working Papers 1902, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb.
    7. Anastasia Semykina, 2018. "Self‐employment among women: Do children matter more than we previously thought?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 416-434, April.
    8. Wolfe, Marcus T. & Patel, Pankaj C., 2019. "Exploring the differences in perceptions of work importance and job usefulness to society between self-employed and employed individuals," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 12(C).
    9. Piers Thompson & Wenyu Zang, 2022. "A matter of life and death? Knowledge intensity of FDI activities and domestic enterprise," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(5), pages 1157-1179, October.
    10. Ingrid C. Chadwick & Alexandra Dawson, 2024. "From imposter fears to authenticity: a typology of women entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1025-1050, March.
    11. Jahel Queralt, 2019. "Protecting the entrepreneurial poor: A human rights approach," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 18(4), pages 336-357, November.

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