Female self-employment has been increasing steadily over the last years in many countries. However, not much is know about women’s decision to become self-employed, especially in Europe. Some few studies typically conclude that most women choose self-employment because it offers more flexibility to combine work and family responsibilities or because of discrimination. Portugal displays one of the highest rates of self-employment in Europe and is one of the countries where the number of self-employed women has increased more. This paper studies gender differences in the determinants of self-employment in Portugal. Unlike other countries, there is no evidence that women choose self-employment because of family reasons. However, there are some suggestions that the choice of self-employment is driven by economic necessity, particularly in the case of women.
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Paper provided by University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal) in its series Economics Working Papers with number
3_2006.