The Propensity of Male vs. Female Students To Take Courses and Degree Concentrations in Entrepreneurship1

As of 2004, only 33% of the self-employed in Canadawere women, and Industry Canada (2002) reports that in 2000, only 15% of leadentrepreneurs were women. However, as of 2002, approximately equal numbers ofmen and women were enrolled in Faculties of Business across Canada. Bird andBrush (2002) suggest that education plays a major role in explaining thedisparity in venturing rates between women and men. One of the two studies reported in this paper (Study A) investigated thenumber of women vs. men enrolled in entrepreneurship courses across Canada andfound that in almost all instances men greatly outnumber women in undergraduateand, more particularly so, in graduate courses. Study B investigated at oneuniversity whether women choose to take a business concentration inentrepreneurship as frequently as male students and found that mostly malestudents concentrate in entrepreneurship. There was a significant differencebetween women and men in one reason for not taking an entrepreneurshipconcentration: women were more likely to say that entrepreneurship did not fittheir personality. There was no difference between men and women regardingtheir attitude to risk-taking aspects of entrepreneurship, which contradictssome previous research. The two studies reported in this paper haveimplications for entrepreneurship education, and for the training of femalemanagement students. (Publication abstract)