Overcoming the Male Bias in Youth's
Entrepreneurship Attitudes
Jessica Hartwig*
Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Wileystr 1, 89231 Neu-Ulm, Germany. E-mail: jessica.hartwig@hnu.de
Carina Volk
Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Wileystr 1, 89231 Neu-Ulm, Germany. E-mail: carina.volk@hnu.de
* Corresponding author
Abstract: This research in progress demonstrates two grievances that contribute to the gender gap in the German founding and start-up scene: Gender stereotypes learned from an early age and the generic masculine in the German language. Both sources of tension represent barriers to female entrepreneurship. To implement early interventions that mitigate these effects, e.g., in the context of school education, more profound insights into adolescents' attitudes are needed. A research design is proposed that examines the impact of role models and gender-sensitive language on the entrepreneurship male bias. Here, a quantitative approach in the form of a standardized questionnaire is suggested to capture students' attitudes. In particular, expectations of successful founders under the influence of role models and gender-sensitive language are examined via different priming texts. The proposed research design results will help find approaches to mitigate start-up barriers to ultimately narrow the gender gap in the German start-up scene.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, start-ups, innovation, female founders, male bias, role models, gender stereotypes, gender bias, priming.
1 Introduction – Problem
Women are massively underrepresented in the German start-up scene. Only one in three founders is female. This imbalance is even more pronounced in the area of innovative start-ups in the digital sector, where the proportion of female founders is only 15.7% (Kollmann et al. 2020). Although this phenomenon can be observed in all industrialized countries, there is no single universally accepted reason for this disparity. Existing literature emphasizes gender differences in attitudes towards competition (Niederle/Vesterlund 2007) and the assessment of one's capabilities (Thébaud 2010), for example. Some other approaches, such as the traditionally strong risk aversion in Germany, are exacerbated by the current pandemic: Prospects for business activities and
This paper was presented at The ISPIM Innovation Conference – Innovating Our Common Future, Berlin, Germany on 20-23 June 2021.
Event Proceedings: LUT Scientific and Expertise Publications: ISBN 978-952-335-467-8
2
thus for revenues are highly uncertain, business angel investments are declining and, ultimately, it is increasingly women who are saddled with the double burden caused by the current absence of childcare. The under-representation of successful female founders also means that there are hardly any female role models for women to follow.
With regard to the goal of a diverse start-up landscape and equal opportunities for women and men, this situation is fundamentally unacceptable. Gender equality and fostering innovation are among the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development goals (UN General Assembly 2015). And yet, gender stereotypes embedded in our culture massively support the gender gap from an early age: boys are said to be good at science, to have an affinity for technology, and to possess the necessary tenacity to stand their ground. Girls, on the other hand, are said to be artistic and linguistically gifted, to be strong in interpersonal relationships, and to be ever-obliging.
These stereotypical views are enhanced by the fact that outdated role images are perpetuated in school coursebooks (Schlösser/Schuhen 2020): Scientists, supermarket managers, or electrical engineers are predominantly portrayed as male in school materials. Females, on the other hand, are mostly presented as beauticians or hairdressers. Such a stereotypical portrayal of the sexes is thus learned, internalized, and lived on by young people.
In addition to such gender stereotypes, it is also the German language usage that makes it difficult for women to envision themselves as founders. The generic masculine in German prescribes that, e.g., developers, researchers, and entrepreneurs are male by default.
Both role models and associations between language and real-world objects are not innate but rather culturally inherited and learned as part of the socialization process. The question arises when girls begin to diverge from boys in terms of their attitudes toward founding. Furthermore, research is needed on how targeted interventions such as providing role models and using gender-sensitive language can influence these attitudes in time.
2 Current Understanding
Both the demotivating effect of gender stereotypes and generic masculine on career-related decisions of women are considered well researched and widely confirmed. In a study, Andres et al. (2020) were able to demonstrate that men and women alike increasingly associate agentic, i.e., masculine connotations, with successful founder personalities. Furthermore, they were able to show that there are higher levels of standard on female founders, especially with regard to communal, i.e., typically female, characteristics. Their findings support the suggestions of Byrne et al. (2019) that women need realistic role models to at least partially reject their male-biased conceptions of entrepreneurs.
Wasserman and Weseley (2009) examined gendered social attitudes of women and men after priming them with fictional texts in a gender-neutral language (English) and gendered language (Spanish), respectively. They found that participants in the treatment with gender-specific language showed significantly more sexist attitudes. The effect was
the path to found a start-up.
3 Research Question and Research Design
Research questions
This study aims to investigate the influence of role models and gender-specific language on the attitudes of children and adolescents. The objective is to explore which expectations boys and girls have of successful founders in general and how these differ from the expectations of successful female founders in particular. Based on existing research findings, our study aims at answering the following research questions:
• Are young girls and boys male-biased with respect to their expectations of successful founders?
• Is there a correlation between the age of adolescents and the prevalence of such a male bias?
• To which extend can role models and gender-neutral language influence this male bias?
Research design
In order to examine the extent to which young people at German schools are male-biased with regard to their entrepreneurship attitudes, surveys are conducted at schools using standardized questionnaires. For this purpose, students from the third grade onwards at primary and secondary schools in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria will be recruited as test subjects. This age range was chosen to ensure that the young participants in particular have sufficient skills to be able to complete the questionnaire largely independently. The questionnaire is divided into three parts:
In the first part, the students are primed with regard to role models and gender-sensitive language. For this purpose, they are given a short introductory text about a successful entrepreneur. This text describes the idea of the entrepreneur to produce and distribute his own creative and healthy juice creations. It explains the various tasks that an entrepreneur must perform: for example, taking out loans, investing in capital, and taking care of employees. Depending on the treatment, which is randomly assigned to the subjects, the
This paper was presented at The ISPIM Innovation Conference – Innovating Our Common Future, Berlin, Germany on 20-23 June 2021.
Event Proceedings: LUT Scientific and Expertise Publications: ISBN 978-952-335-467-8
4
entrepreneur described is either a woman ('Cari'), a man ('Carl'), or a founding couple consisting of a woman and a man ('Cari and Carl'). A fourth group serves as a control group and is not exposed to any primer.
In the second part, the students are asked about their attitudes and expectations of entrepreneurs. Using a five-point Likert scale, they are asked to indicate which characteristics they think are necessary to be able to found and run a company successfully. We derive the set of twenty features used from the archetypal model of Pätzmann and Hartwig (2018). Archetypes are human archetypes that exist universally in the collective unconscious. They are thus intuitively understood and generate emotions in everyone. The model of Pätzmann and Hartwig represents the only empirically-based archetypal model, which links both female and male archetypes with characteristics and motives.
For this reason, it is very well suited to elicit which basic archetypal characteristics are associated with entrepreneurs. For example, the degree of agreement with the statement "A successful entrepreneur encourages his employees even in difficult situations" allows to conclude how strongly the communal trait "caring" of the Mother archetype is associated with entrepreneurs. The statement "A successful entrepreneur is self-confident and gets his way," on the other hand, is an example of an agentic trait of the male Leader archetype. Both positive and negative traits of the anti-archetypes of the model are queried. Negative traits might include arrogance (anti-archetype Diva) or imperiousness (anti-archetype Tyrant). In each case, an equal number of communal and agentic properties are queried.
The last part of the questionnaire is devoted to the demographic details of the subjects. Critical are gender, age, and whether a directly related family member has already founded a company themselves. The indication of gender provides conclusions about the central aspect of the study, namely the gender gap in the attitudes of the surveyed students. Age offers clues as to when the gender gap develops and ultimately when institutionalized interventions would need to be used to prevent it from occurring. It stands to reason that entrepreneurship attitudes come about after personal experience. For this reason, it is crucial to know whether there have already been foundations of enterprises within the respondent's closer social environment.
Prospect
Due to the current dynamically changing regulations with the handling of the Corona pandemic in schools, the quantitative survey can presently not be conducted as planned. In an initial field phase, only 25 students have participated in the study in total, making it impossible to draw any conclusions. Nevertheless, initial indications point to the confirmation of the research questions posed.
4 Contributions and Practical Implications
The results of our study and the corresponding recommendations for action that follow from them are guiding principles for a more diverse start-up culture. The verification of a
implemented across the board through appropriate teaching in schools.
The results could have further implications for the design of education and teaching in general and at all levels, including tools such as coursebooks and case studies.
5 Limitations
The chosen experimental setting will be able to measure the existence and intensity of a male bias in entrepreneurship attitudes among children and adolescents. With the help of the priming text, it will also allow to conclude correlations between such a bias and age. Eventually, it will reveal how effectively role models and gender-sensitive language mitigate stereotypical thinking. However, the chosen setting is not fully capable of allowing conclusions on how and why exactly students develop such a bias in the first place.
Furthermore, the possibility of methodological weaknesses related with the chosen research design of a standardized online survey cannot be ruled out. For example, the authors cannot exclude the possibility that participants do not answer the questions carefully or that especially younger participants seek their parents' help and get influenced by their opinions. Therefore, the authors would prefer to conduct the questionnaires as computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) or to conduct in-depth interviews to gain even deeper insights. Both alternatives, however, are currently not feasible due to the strict contact restrictions in German schools during the ongoing pandemic.
This paper was presented at The ISPIM Innovation Conference – Innovating Our Common Future, Berlin, Germany on 20-23 June 2021.
Event Proceedings: LUT Scientific and Expertise Publications: ISBN 978-952-335-467-8
6
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