GenderGapsInnovation · Gender Gaps in Innovation: From Entrepreneurship to Academic Science

Gender Gaps in Innovation: From Entrepreneurship to Academic Science

Innovation drives economic growth and social progress, but women continue to face barriers that limit their full participation in entrepreneurship and science. Around the world, female-owned businesses are often smaller and less profitable, and women in academia receive fewer opportunities, less recognition, and less support for the research areas they study. Moreover, critical research areas, such as health issues that predominantly affect women, remain under-studied. Given the implications for economic growth and societal wellbeing, the overarching goal of this research is to understand the determinants of the gender gaps in entrepreneurship and science as well as their consequences for innovation. To address these knowledge gaps, this project explores (1) potential determinants of the gender gap in entrepreneurship, (2) investigate interventions and policies that can address these gaps; and (3) understand the consequences of the lack of gender diversity in innovative activities, especially in academic science, on the production of ideas and how ideas by women are perceived. The project comprises three main work packages. The first examines how motherhood shapes women’s participation and outcomes in entrepreneurship. Using rich administrative data from the Netherlands, this work traces how childbirth affects women’s likelihood of remaining self-employed, the profitability of their businesses, and the kinds of industries they enter. It highlights how family responsibilities can widen gender gaps in entrepreneurship and provides new evidence on the challenges faced by self-employed mothers. The second focuses on the role of professional networks in supporting women entrepreneurs. It asks whether access to business connections through low-cost digital platforms can improve outcomes for women-led firms. This work examines how networks shape collaboration, innovation, and firm growth, and whether network composition matters for women’s success. The third turns to academic science and investigates how gender diversity affects innovation. It uses the historical shift of U.S. universities from male-only to coeducational to study how greater female representation changes the topics researchers pursue and the recognition of women’s contributions. Together, these work packages provide new evidence on why gender gaps in entrepreneurship and science persist, and what greater diversity means for innovation.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union