Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices

Abstract Rapid expansion of creative opportunity recognition and business venture development suggests that the United States is experiencing a sea change with respect to entrepreneurship. Although trends and projections indicate that women will play an increasingly important role in the entrepreneurial development of the economy, little is known about what female youth either understand or think about entrepreneurship. Prompted by these underlying considerations, this study investigates survey data from a national sample of female and male high school students concerning their entrepreneurship knowledge and attitudes—and whether there are any significant gender differences in these areas. The Gallup Organization collected the study data from a sample that included approximately 1,000 males and females. The results derived from logit analysis of the data suggest that there are many similarities between females and males with respect to their knowledge of and opinions about entrepreneurship; however, they also exhibit significant gender differences in several areas. The study's findings lead to important curricular implications for entrepreneurship education in the nation's schools, especially in relation to females. Both males and females exhibit a low level of entrepreneurship knowledge. Females, however, are more aware of their deficiencies in this knowledge area than are their male counterparts. Both sexes believe that further education can correct the knowledge problem. Although very interested in starting a business, females still are significantly less likely than males (62% vs. 72%) to want to start a business of their own. Both females and males overwhelmingly believe in the importance of giving back to the community—which goes beyond providing jobs. The findings of this study also suggest a significant paradox in the “pre-entrepreneurial” characteristics of female and male youth. Whereas the majority of students aspire to start their own businesses, they hold certain views that could be detrimental to entrepreneurial success. For example, more than half of the youth sampled believe that price changes are objectionable business responses to shifts in the cost of production or to changes in market demand. This pattern of response, moreover, is significantly more apparent in females than in males. The results of this study provide compelling evidence in support of the need to initiate or improve the entrepreneurship education of our nation's youth. Their contributions may be strongly influenced by the foundation for entrepreneurship that is provided in the formative years of their education. Entrepreneurship education should focus on key entrepreneurship concepts, as well as the fundamental linkages between the dynamics and assumptions of a competitive market system and the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship. Two examples of educational programs that meet the particular needs of female youth with respect to these issues, as well as other key requirements for entrepreneurship education, are described in the final section of the study.