What Makes A Female Entrepreneur?

What makes a female entrepreneur, and what motivates a woman to leave employment to start out on her own? A recent report ‘The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur’ found that of 549 founders of high tech companies only 41 were women. Interestingly women cited their professional and business networks as important contributors to their success (regular readers will know of our previous debate on women networking) and having prior experience. Women also said that they want fair treatment and improved compensation both of which they felt would be more achievable working for themselves, and working for someone else does not appeal to them. The top reason given was that the start-up company culture appealed to them - perhaps because this allows them to tap into their creativity without being held back by an employer. Bidiversity are looking for female entrepreneurs to share their views in a survey which aims to shed light on what the pull factors are that drive women into entrepreneurship and what companies can learn from their former female talent to make their cultures more engaging. You can take the survey here. I look forward to seeing the results on this fascinating topic.