Gender Inequality: Entrepreneurship Development in the MENA Region

Entrepreneurship is increasingly popular among policy makers worldwide to promote and achieve economic development and growth. However, entrepreneurship rates differ from one country to another, and particularly the number of women entrepreneurs is still significantly lower than the number of male e...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-11, Vol.11 (22), p.6472
Main Authors: Bastian, Bettina Lynda, Metcalfe, Beverly Dawn, Zali, Mohammad Reza
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic development
Empowerment
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Gender
Gender equity
Inequality
International organizations
Labor force
Political power
Society
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Entrepreneurship is increasingly popular among policy makers worldwide to promote and achieve economic development and growth. However, entrepreneurship rates differ from one country to another, and particularly the number of women entrepreneurs is still significantly lower than the number of male entrepreneurs in many contexts. In the present paper, we critically assess how country measures of gender inequality shape men and women’s entrepreneurial intentions, which were shown in literature to be excellent predictors of the establishment of new ventures. We analyze the direct and moderating effects of gender inequality on important individual-level antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) identified gender inequality as a key contributor to the loss of human development and declared “gender equality” as a sustainable development goal (SDG) in the UN 2030 agenda. Our research draws on the gender inequality index and GEM data from nine Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Our results show that a culture of inequality leads to limited entrepreneurial behavior by both men and women in a population.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11226472