An Exploratory Cross-Country Analysis of Female Entrepreneurial Activity: The Roles of Gendered Institutions

The use of a gender-neutral approach to explore the contextual determinants of female entrepreneurship may preclude us from unraveling the complex institutions that tend to treat men and women asymmetrically, namely gendered institutions. This paper uses institutional theory to highlight different institutional patterns from a gendered perspective. In particular, drawing upon Scott’s well-known formulation of three institutional categories, we examine how three pillars of gendered institutions—regulative, normative and cognitive gendered institutions—shape both the absolute and the relative levels of female entrepreneurial activity, that is, female total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate and female/male TEA ratio. Using cross-sectional data for 63 countries in 2013, we employ exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis and find that all three dimensions of gendered institutions have significant influences on the relative levels of female entrepreneurial activity, while only regulative and cognitive gendered institutions are significantly related to the absolute level of female entrepreneurship. Specifically, regulative gendered institutions have negative impacts, while cognitive gendered institutions have positive impacts. In addition, among the three distinct dimensions of gendered institutions, cognitive gendered institutions have the most important effect on both levels of female entrepreneurship. Implications for research and policy are discussed.