Do Men and Women approach Entrepreneurship differently? Here’s what the data say
Some time ago, I wrote an article titled The Superpowers of Women Entrepreneurs. In it, I reviewed different studies that had identified certain characteristics that seemed to occur more frequently among women and could become strengths when it comes to entrepreneurship: empathy, the ability to work in teams, systems thinking, caution, and concern for social impact, among others.
Since then, I have continued researching the psychology of entrepreneurs. And recently, I had the opportunity to revisit the subject of gender, but this time from a different perspective: my own data.
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike”
As part of my research on entrepreneurial values, I studied a sample of 244 entrepreneurs from 27 countries. The sample also turned out to be almost evenly divided between men and women: 120 men, 123 women, and 1 person who preferred not to disclose their gender. For the gender comparisons presented below, I worked with the 243 participants who identified as either male or female.
So, a question inevitably arose: Would I find differences between them?
The answer is yes. But before I tell you what they were, I want to start with something I find even more interesting.
Men and women are quite similar
When we talk about differences between men and women, we usually start precisely there: with the differences. Men are more this. Women are more that. Men take more risks. Women are more empathetic. Men are results-oriented. Women are people-oriented. We have an enormous repertoire of stereotypes at our disposal. However, when I analyzed the results of my study, the first conclusion was far less dramatic: men and women entrepreneurs are much more alike than they are different. I analyzed whether there were gender differences across the various value dimensions I had identified in the study. And only one of them showed a statistically significant difference.
I think it is worth pausing here.
I did not find one set of male values and another set of female values. Nor did I find two completely different ways of approaching entrepreneurship. Across most of the dimensions studied, being a man or a woman did not make a significant difference. And perhaps this is a good way to begin any conversation about gender: by first acknowledging everything we have in common. Because talking about average differences between two groups does not mean describing every individual within those groups. There are women who differ enormously from the female average and men who differ enormously from the male average. A statistical difference tells us about tendencies, not individual destinies.
That said, there were some differences. And they are interesting.
The stereotype says emotional; the data say integrity
There is a deeply rooted stereotype that women are more “emotional.” I am not going to enter here into the debate over how much of these differences may have a biological origin and how much may be the result of centuries of social and cultural learning. It is a complex discussion that goes far beyond the purpose of this article. But we do know that there is a cultural perception of women as being more empathetic, communicative, and relationship-oriented.
Well, something along those lines did appear in my results, although not exactly in the way the stereotype suggests. The only value dimension in which I found a significant difference between men and women was one related to the way entrepreneurs interact with others.
This dimension encompasses behaviors such as being transparent with customers and suppliers, maintaining consistency between what is promised and what is delivered, seeking useful solutions for others, building lasting relationships, and prioritizing honesty even when doing so may come at a financial cost. The women in my sample identified significantly more strongly with these behaviors than the men.
So, if I had to translate the old stereotype into what I actually found in my data, I would put it differently:
The stereotype says emotional; the data say integrity. This does not mean, of course, that men are not honest or do not care about their customers. Once again, we are talking about average differences. But among the women in the sample, there does appear to be a somewhat stronger orientation toward a way of doing business based on relationships, service, and transparency.
And this is not an entirely isolated finding. The HEXACO model of personality—one of the most widely used frameworks in psychology for studying personality traits—consistently finds that women score higher than men on the Emotionality dimension, a finding that has been replicated across dozens of countries. Closeness, empathy, and relationship orientation are not merely cultural perceptions without empirical support: they appear time and again in the data.
Perhaps what is interesting is that we should stop thinking of these characteristics simply as “soft” skills. Listening, building trust, understanding a customer’s needs, delivering on promises, and building relationships that last beyond a single transaction are also business tools.
We also define success somewhat differently
But I found another result that makes the previous one particularly interesting. In the study, I did not only measure values. I also asked entrepreneurs what they considered important in order to say that they had been successful. And once again, a difference between men and women emerged.
Women attributed significantly greater importance than men to aspects of success related to relationships and human capital. This includes elements connected to the relationships we build around the business: customers, employees, partners, and other people with whom we interact throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
We therefore have two findings pointing in a similar direction. On the one hand, women identify more strongly with certain behaviors related to service, honesty, and relationship building. On the other, they also place greater importance on those relationships when defining what success means to them. There seems to be a difference not only in how we do certain things, but also in what we consider valuable when evaluating the outcome.
And this raises an important point for reflection.
For a long time, we have relied primarily on economic indicators to measure business success: revenue, profitability, growth, wealth, number of employees. All of these are important. A business needs financial results to survive. But they are not necessarily the only outcomes that matter to the person running it.
A nuance that challenges the stereotype
I also found something that departs from the traditional image: the women in the sample placed significantly greater importance than the men on consistency in execution—the ability to sustain effort, not merely to intend to do so.
Relationships and execution are not necessarily two opposite ends of the same spectrum. We can care about people and achieve objectives. Listen and make decisions. Be empathetic and demand results. Perhaps one of the traps of stereotypes is precisely that they force us to choose between characteristics that do not have to be mutually exclusive.
And who is more successful?
We then arrive at the inevitable question. If we found some differences in values and in the way success is defined, did we also find differences in outcomes?
Yes, although once again the data need to be interpreted with caution. In my study, I measured success based on entrepreneurs’ own perceptions of their recent achievements across different areas. Women reported significantly higher levels of achievement in three of the four major areas evaluated. The exception? Business and personal financial performance.
We cannot conclude from these results that “women are more successful than men.” My study was not designed to demonstrate that and, moreover, we are talking about self-perceived success. But the finding does invite us to ask a different question: How often do we confuse entrepreneurial success with financial success?
Money matters. Of course it matters. But when we ask entrepreneurs themselves about their achievements, relationships, the impact they create, their autonomy, and their personal well-being also emerge. And then the picture becomes considerably more complex.
Perhaps men and women not only place different levels of importance on certain components of success. Perhaps that also influences what we recognize as an achievement when we look back at our own entrepreneurial journey.
So, is there a female way of being an entrepreneur?
After analyzing my results, I would find it difficult to defend such a categorical statement. I found differences between men and women, but I found many more similarities. Most of the values I studied showed no significant differences by gender.
The fundamental elements that appear to contribute to an entrepreneur’s success do not belong to men or women. They are values that anyone can develop and strengthen. But within that vast common ground, some nuances do emerge.
In my sample, women showed a stronger orientation toward relationships based on service and honesty. They placed greater importance on relationships and human capital as components of success. And they placed greater importance on consistency in execution. They also reported greater achievement across several dimensions of success, although not in the financial dimension.
I am not sure we should call these differences “superpowers,” as I did in that article some time ago. Today, I would probably use a less eye-catching and more precise word: strengths. And, above all, I do not think we should interpret them as exclusively female strengths. If building better relationships with customers benefits our business, men can learn to do it too. If consistency helps us turn our intentions into results, we can strengthen that as well. If listening, serving, keeping our word, and building trust lead to better business relationships, there is no reason to place those behaviors within a gender category.
Perhaps that is the most important conclusion. Studying the differences between men and women should not serve to build two new boxes in which to classify ourselves. It should help us identify behaviors that seem to work and ask ourselves what we can learn from one another.
Some years ago, I wrote about the possible “superpowers” of women entrepreneurs. Today, after looking at my own data, I would start somewhere else. By remembering, as Maya Angelou said, that we are much more alike than we are different.
And perhaps it is precisely from everything we have in common that we can best understand—and make the most of—what makes us different.
