How Do Women Entrepreneurs Perform? Empirical Evidence from Egypt

The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) To explain how women owned MSEs differ from men owned MSEs in terms of human and financial capital; 2) To what extent do these differences/similarities affect the performance of the MSE? Using econometric techniques (i.e. logistical analysis), the analysis in this study is based on the 2003 MSE dataset made available by the ERF (Economic Research Forum of the Middle East and North Africa, Iran and Turkey). The sample size consists of 5000 private MSEs. The paper evaluates the effect of aspects of human and financial capitals on three measures of performance of MSEs in Egypt for men and women. Measures of performance are: growth (increase in employment from one year ago); success (rise in revenues from one year ago); and efficiency (growth in returns on sales (ROS) from one year ago). Preliminary findings show gender differences in terms of general, and specific human capital, as well as financial capital, where women are at a disadvantage. Empirical findings reveal that women are better performers than men in generating revenues, despite the fact that their revenues are almost one third their males’ counterparts. What’s more interesting is that women are no different from men in terms of employment growth or the efficiency of running their businesses.