All the Single Ladies: More Women Entrepreneurs Than Men Start Businesses
There are more single women entrepreneurs than married women or male entrepreneurs for many reasons.
“Now put your hands up.”
A peach of a new study out of Georgia State University finds that more than men or married women, single women have the highest rates of entrepreneurship of all individuals. What makes a single women start a company on her own more often?
Many predictable economic and time factors such as not having children and family to care for go into the decision to start a business. But one simple reason is single women think they will make more money on their own than they would working for someone else. Be the boss lady and you will earn more green.
Catherine Clifford writes in Entrepreneur that living in an area where gender roles are more progressive also is a big plus. Think Silicon Valley. New York. Austin. Married women also benefit from a surrounding culture that would support their choices to be more flexible in their career decisions.
And to maintain the role of successful entrepreneur, Lolly Daskal writes in Inc. that you need to remember a dozen bad traits that so many women—and men—at the top have no time to tolerate. Those habits to avoid include dishonesty, mediocrity, boredom, negativity and toxicity.
You would think if there were more women launching their own businesses, there would be more business books with female bylines telling everyone else how to make it big. Not so fast. According to The Guardian, women have a fear of bragging and not so much extra time so they shy away from tooting their own horns. That’s why only three of the recent top 20 business books on shelves today are penned by women entrepreneurs.
Alison Jones writes that the impostor syndrome plays a part for many women and she cites a study from Barclay’s last summer called, “The Psychology of Entrepreneurship.” According to that report, “female entrepreneurs are significantly better organized, extraverted, slightly more competitive and more emotionally stable” than male entrepreneurs.
But they are more modest, too.
The report states, 42 percent of women say “their business is prospering compared to 62 percent of males. This is despite the fact female-run businesses were shown on average to report higher pre-tax profits.” Here we go with that pesky confidence factor again.
About the Author
Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com