Title: Women entrepreneurs in France

Authors: Virginie Vial; Katia Richomme-Huet

Addresses: Kedge Business School, Domaine de Luminy, BP 921, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France; Institut d'Asie Orientale, IAO, UMR CNRS 5062, France ' Kedge Business School, Domaine de Luminy, BP 921, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France

Abstract: Despite supposedly supportive institutions and quasi-gender equality in employment rate, only 30% of French entrepreneurs are women. Using the 5Ms framework, we illustrate and explain the entrepreneurship gender gap in the French institutional context. To this end, we worked with a quantitative study using the large SINE database, which contains information on 48,251 new entrepreneurs. Although women are still mostly confined to traditionally gendered sectors and start smaller projects despite seemingly unconstrained access to finance, they outperform men in terms of management but fail to get outside support. However, mothers conversely struggle to get finance but innovate in sales, products and service. Our results call for a redefinition of classical concepts and measurements in entrepreneurship.

Keywords: women entrepreneurs; female entrepreneurs; France; motherhood; entrepreneurship; gender gap; management performance; external support; financial support; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.081034

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.30 No.1, pp.80 - 109

Received: 16 Dec 2015
Accepted: 18 Dec 2015
Published online: 19 Dec 2016 *

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