| Women Hold Up Half the Sky? The Enduring Gender Gap in the Performance of Chinese Privately Owned Ventures |
Received:September 27, 2017 Revised:September 27, 2017 |
Key Words: Gender, Entrepreneurship, China |
| Author Name | Affiliation | | Eric Yanfei Zhao* | Indiana University |
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Abstract: |
| The gender gap in entrepreneurial performance seems to persist despite the increasingly comparable access to resources among female and male entrepreneurs. In this paper, we propose that this gap not only originates from different resource levels but is also rooted in broader contextual contingencies that variably enable or constrain female entrepreneurs’ success. Analyzing a proprietary database of 5,233 Chinese privately owned enterprises, we found that on average, ventures owned by male entrepreneurs significantly outperform those owned by female entrepreneurs, after controlling for various types of resource stocks. Beyond resource access, the enduring gender gap seems to be driven by the strong government intervention and cultural beliefs in gender inequality at the province level. We further examined the underlying mechanisms driving this broader pattern and found that in provinces with strong government intervention and gender inequality beliefs, more time is required for after-work social activities and there is also a higher work-life imbalance, both of which tend to disadvantage women. |
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