The Well-being of Women Entrepreneurs: The Role of Gender Inequality and Gender Roles

We present new evidence on the well-being of women entrepreneurs using data from the World Values Survey for 80 countries. We find that in low- and middle-income countries, female entrepreneurs have lower well-being than male entrepreneurs, while in high-income countries, they have higher well-being. We further explore several macro and micro-level mechanisms-- institutional context, gender roles, and individual characteristics--that potentially moderate this relationship. We find that the gender gap in well-being is larger in countries with higher gender inequality, lower level of financial development, and stricter adherence to sexist gender roles. We also find that women entrepreneurs with lower education, more children, and risk-averse preferences are likely to report lower well-being. Our results suggest several policy mechanisms that can be used to enhance the well-being of women entrepreneurs.