The role of gender as an independent determinant of entrepreneurship (evidence from Poland)

Authors: Dorota Jegorow, Judyta Przyłuska-Schmitt, Tamás Szigetvári, Jaroslav Bučková

In: Scientific Papers of Silesian University of Technology Organization and Management Series, 2023 : 176, 169-184.

Abstract

The issue of gender in analyzes concerning entrepreneurship is part of numerous items, most of which focus on showing the worse situation of women, often equated with discrimination. Qualitative analyzes are often directly linked to a clear predominance of men in the population of entrepreneurs. This study is of a theoretical-cognitive nature. By emphasizing the prevailing gender discrimination, structural inequalities, and lack of consensus within the scientific community, the article contributes to the ongoing discussion on women’s entrepreneurship and the challenges they face. The quantitative nature of the study aims to determine the ratio of women to men engaged in entrepreneurial activities during the social, economic, and political changes that have taken place in Poland over the past three decades. The research problem was embedded in the conception of natural differences between the number of women and men as entrepreneurs wherein the criteria of sustainable development, with convergent entrepreneurial intentions of both sexes.