With generous support from the Kauffman Foundation, NCWIT presents its entrepreneurial series: five reports answering questions and addressing the obstacles women IT entrepreneurs face today, authored by senior research scientists William Aspray and J. McGrath Cohoon.

Among the report series' findings:

• There is no conclusive research that gender is a factor in the success of entrepreneurs. If gender differences do exist, they may be a product of differences in education and experience, effective business networks, and access to financing.
  
• Women are more likely to be motivated to pursue an entrepreneurial career as a means to balance family and career, while men are more likely to be motivated by wealth accumulation and career advancement.
  
• Women-owned businesses are smaller, younger, and more likely to be in retail or service industries than businesses owned by men. All of these characteristics receive less favorable treatment from bankers regardless of whether the business is owned by a woman or a man.
  
• Risk-taking propensity is the psychological trait most likely to distinguish between men and women who become entrepreneurs, and those who do not.
  
• Women’s self image seldom includes entrepreneurship.
  
• Women are much more likely than men to self-finance their business.
  
• So little research has been done on gender and entrepreneurship with regard to IT businesses that it’s impossible to know how much, if any, of the above findings on gender and entrepreneurship in general apply to IT entrepreneurship.

To read the reports, visit our Reports & Papers page.

To read Entrepreneurial Series blogs, visit our blog.