Goal 5: Gender Equality – The Case of Volvo

This chapter discusses SDG 5 (gender equality) and Volvo’s gender equality work. SDG 5 is the prevention of all types of discrimination and violence against women (UN, 2015). Even though men and women have similar approaches towards entrepreneurship, there remains a significant difference in men’s and women’s propensity to start a business, and this is because of gender (Goel et al., 2014). Gender is one of the most personal and salient issues in one’s life, which also underlines the significance of gender’s role in business (Goel et al., 2014). Arafat et al. (2020) identified differences between men’s and women’s propensities to start a business. However, they pointed out that more women are participating in entrepreneurship in countries with developing economies than in countries with developed economies. In addition, in economically developed countries, women also need less financial support from their families (Welsh et al., 2018). Minniti (2010) explained many poor people’s apparent lack of interest in seeking and pursuing entrepreneurship with three factors: first, women face a higher opportunity cost than men, which makes women scared of pursuing opportunities. Second, Minniti (2010) brought up the factor of concern risks. In households at the subsistence level, the potential losses may outweigh the potential gains. Finally, the third aspect is culture. Women are often less able to pursue the opportunities to own businesses because of cultural or business environment restrictions, as Minniti (2010) explained. For example, gender beliefs are often restrictive, contributing to the significant gap between women’s and men’s opportunities to identify and pursue entrepreneurship. Although Minniti (2010) identified these characteristics, they explained that the role and characteristics of female entrepreneurship vary across countries at different stages of development. However, the rates of female entrepreneurship tend to be relatively higher in developing countries than in developed countries (Minniti, 2010). Minniti (2010) explained that in developing economies, women face higher barriers to entry than men into the formal labour market, leading them to seek other opportunities for work, such as entrepreneurship because this offers a way out of unemployment and sometimes out of poverty. As such, although more women in these countries pursue entrepreneurship, they do so with less entrepreneurial experience than men due to disadvantages and discrimination in education and the labour market (Minniti, 2010). Moreover, with perceived underinvestment in their human capital, many women may not have sufficient confidence in their ability to start a firm. This demonstrates the importance of education to make changes in the environment that facilitate female entrepreneurship and overall business and work opportunities.