Survived, but cannot prosper! Examining through a liberal feminist lens the impact of gender inequality on the success of women-owned entrepreneurial ventures

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the impact of gender inequality on the success of women-owned ventures, specifically in terms of the latter’s rate of survival and revenue growth. Utilizing liberal feminist theory as the conceptual lens, we test our hypotheses on 4744 US-based ventures founded in 2004 and surveyed over seven years, as part of the Kauffman Firm Survey. We find that while gender inequality does not have a significant impact on firm survival, it does negatively affect the venture’s revenue growth. At the same time, an absence of gender inequality has a significant positive impact on women-owned ventures, making them achieve much higher growth compared to their male-led counterparts. The study findings have important implications for public policy, institutional reforms, and availability of support services at the entrepreneurial ecosystem level.