IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/120477.html

Frontiers: breaking the glass ceiling: empowering female entrepreneurs through female mentors

Author

Listed:
  • Germann, Frank
  • Anderson, Stephen J.
  • Chintagunta, Pradeep K.
  • Vilcassim, Naufel J.

Abstract

Among the millions of entrepreneurs in developing economies, few are able to earn a decent livelihood. To help these entrepreneurs succeed, governmental and nongovernmental organizations invest billions of dollars every year in providing training programs. Many of these programs involve providing entrepreneurs with mentors. Unfortunately, the effects of these programs are often muted, or even null, for woman-owned firms. Against this backdrop, we tested whether gender matching, where female entrepreneurs are randomly paired with a female mentor, could help address the gender gap. Findings from a randomized controlled field experiment with 930 Ugandan entrepreneurs show that mentor gender has a powerful impact on female entrepreneurs. Firm sales and profits of female entrepreneurs guided by a female mentor increased by, on average, 32% and 31% compared with the control group, and these estimates are even larger for female entrepreneurs with high aspirations. In contrast, female entrepreneurs guided by a male mentor did not significantly improve performance compared with the control group. We provide suggestive mechanism evidence that female mentor-mentee arrangements were characterized by more positive engagements.

Suggested Citation

  • Germann, Frank & Anderson, Stephen J. & Chintagunta, Pradeep K. & Vilcassim, Naufel J., 2024. "Frontiers: breaking the glass ceiling: empowering female entrepreneurs through female mentors," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120477, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:120477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/120477/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan Athey & Emil Palikot, 2022. "Effective and Scalable Programs to Facilitate Labor Market Transitions for Women in Technology," Papers 2211.09968, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    2. Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge & Kjetil Bjorvatn & Bertil Tungodden, 2015. "Human and Financial Capital for Microenterprise Development: Evidence from a Field and Lab Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(4), pages 707-722, April.
    3. Donna K. Ginther & Janet M. Currie & Francine D. Blau & Rachel T. A. Croson, 2020. "Can Mentoring Help Female Assistant Professors in Economics? An Evaluation by Randomized Trial," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 205-209, May.
    4. Scott E. Carrell & Marianne E. Page & James E. West, 2010. "Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1101-1144.
    5. David Card & Ciprian Domnisoru & Seth G. Sanders & Lowell Taylor & Victoria Udalova, 2022. "The Impact of Female Teachers on Female Students' Lifetime Well-Being," NBER Working Papers 30430, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. David McKenzie, 2017. "Identifying and Spurring High-Growth Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from a Business Plan Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(8), pages 2278-2307, August.
    7. David McKenzie & Anna Luisa Paffhausen, 2019. "Small Firm Death in Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 645-657, October.
    8. Sunil Gupta & Valarie Zeithaml, 2006. "Customer Metrics and Their Impact on Financial Performance," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 718-739, 11-12.
    9. de Mel, Suresh & McKenzie, David & Woodruff, Christopher, 2014. "Business training and female enterprise start-up, growth, and dynamics: Experimental evidence from Sri Lanka," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 199-210.
    10. Stephen J. Anderson & Rajesh Chandy & Bilal Zia, 2018. "Pathways to Profits: The Impact of Marketing vs. Finance Skills on Business Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(12), pages 5559-5583, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bento, Pedro, 2025. "Female entrepreneurship in the U.S. 1982–2012: Implications for welfare and aggregate output," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    2. Thompson, Debora V. & Kirmani, Amna & Hamilton, Rebecca & Li, Andy & du Plessis, Christilene & Fernandes, Daniel & Johnson, Guillaume & McFerran, Brent & Ni, Jian & Pavlov, Vladimir & Petersen, Franci, 2026. "Cycles of inequality in the marketplace: Insights from macro, marketer, and consumer perspectives," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 580-599.
    3. Ting Zhang, 2024. "Commentary on “Frontiers: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors”," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 918-920, July.
    4. Arora, Apoorv & Al Mamun, Abdullah, 2026. "Addressing subclinical distress through CBT-informed mentoring for entrepreneurial wellbeing," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    5. J. Anderson, Stephen & Grover, Arti & Kankanhalli, Shreya & Ramani, Nandini, 2026. "From Disparity to Equality : Strategic Targeting to Close Gender Gaps in Business Upgrading Programs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11327, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grover,Arti Goswami & Imbruno,Michele, 2020. "Using Experimental Evidence to Inform Firm Support Programs in Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9461, The World Bank.
    2. Lars Ivar Oppedal Berge & Armando José Garcia Pires, 2020. "Gender, formality, and entrepreneurial success," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 881-900, December.
    3. Grimm, Michael & Soubeiga, Sidiki & Weber, Michael, 2024. "Supporting small firms in a fragile context: Comparing matching and cash grants in Burkina Faso," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    4. David Alfaro‐Serrano & Tanay Balantrapu & Ritam Chaurey & Ana Goicoechea & Eric Verhoogen, 2021. "Interventions to promote technology adoption in firms: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), December.
    5. Delius, Antonia & Sterck, Olivier, 2024. "Cash transfers and micro-enterprise performance: Theory and quasi-experimental evidence from Kenya," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    6. Gonzalez-Uribe, Juanita & Hmaddi, Ouafaa, 2022. "The multi-dimensional impacts of business accelerators: what does the research tell us?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115461, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. David McKenzie & Anna Luisa Paffhausen, 2019. "Small Firm Death in Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(4), pages 645-657, October.
    8. Rosas, Nina & Acevedo, Maria Cecilia & Zaldivar, Samantha, 2022. "Starting points matter: Cash plus training effects on youth entrepreneurship, skills, and resilience during an epidemic," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Evan Borkum & Paolo Abarcar & Laura Meyer & Matthew Spitzer, "undated". "Jordan Refugee Livelihoods Development Impact Bond Evaluation Framework," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 602dafe521fe4467854dcd45e, Mathematica Policy Research.
    10. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Paolo Landoni & Emanuele Rusinà, 2021. "Money management and entrepreneurial training in microfinance: impact on beneficiaries and institutions," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 1049-1085, October.
    11. González-Uribe, Juanita & Reyes, Santiago, 2021. "Identifying and boosting “Gazelles”: Evidence from business accelerators," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 260-287.
    12. Takao Kato & Yang Song, 2022. "Advising, gender, and performance: Evidence from a university with exogenous adviser–student gender match," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 121-141, January.
    13. Francine D. Blau & Lisa M. Lynch, 2024. "Fifty Years of Breakthroughs and Barriers: Women in Economics, Policy, and Leadership," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 711(1), pages 225-244, January.
    14. Kassim, Gafaru Bakari & Han, Yousueng & Hong, Sounman, 2026. "Examining the effects of gender representation on student academic performance in STEM subjects," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    15. Goldstein, Markus & Gonzalez Martinez, Paula Lorena & Papineni, Sreelakshmi & Wimpey, Joshua Seth, 2022. "Childcare, COVID-19 and Female Firm Exit : Impact of COVID-19 School Closure Policies on Global Gender Gaps in Business Outcomes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10012, The World Bank.
    16. Gamage, Danula K. & Sevilla, Almudena & Smith, Sarah, 2020. "Women in Economics: A UK Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 13477, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Solène Delecourt & Anne Fitzpatrick, 2021. "Childcare Matters: Female Business Owners and the Baby-Profit Gap," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(7), pages 4455-4474, July.
    18. Delecourt, Solène, 2025. "The effect of relieving time constraints on the business performance of women-owned businesses: A field experiment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(7).
    19. Ahmed Elsayed & Soiliou Daw Namoro & Rania Roushdy, 2022. "Empowering women in conservative settings: evidence from an intervention in rural Egypt," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1287-1322, December.
    20. Nguyen, The Linh Bao, 2025. "Affirmative action, Education and Labor market outcomes in Vietnam," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:120477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.