Against All Odds: The Entrepreneurship of Women
基于北美数据，分析了女性创业的快速增长趋势、行业分布及历史背景，指出女性企业主面临资源获取障碍，但正逐步拓展至非传统领域。
AGAINST ALL ODDS: THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP OF WOMEN Women-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment of the small business population in North America. In the U.S. between 1977 and 1982, the number of female non-farm sole proprietorships grew at an annual rate of 6.9 percent; all non-farm sole proprietorships grew at an annual rate of 3.7 percent. By 1984, there were 3 million female owned non-farm sole proprietorships in the U.S., according to Small Business Administration estimates. In Canada, the growth in the female portion of self-employment nationwide has increased by an annual average rate of 5.8 percent compared to 2.8 percent for males, and it is estimated that there were approximately 365,000 self-employed women in non-farm businesses in 1984. Based on 1972 Census information, fewer than 5 percent of U.S. businesses were owned by women. This number had increased to 28 percent of self-employed businesses in 1982. In Canada, it is estimated that women make up 27 percent of all self-employed persons. BACKGROUND While many businesses operated by women entrepreneurs are in traditionally female dominated occupations, women are also broadening their participation in non-traditional fields. According to The State of Small Business report: From 1977-1982, the highest annual growth rates of female-operated businesses occurred in non-traditional, limited areas of women's business ownership where a small degree of change generated large percentage changes in number of firms and business receipts. These industries included agricultural services, forestry and fishing, mining, construction, and manufacturing. In these major industry divisions, the growth rate of female-operated businesses exceeded the growth rate of the industry as a whole. A similar trend is in evidence in Canada. The phenomenon of female entrepreneurship is a recent one. Women-owned firms are still in the embryonic stages of development. The major U.S. study on women business owners found that 75 percent of women owners had owned a business for less than ten years, and 14.7 percent for one year or less. In Canada, a study of women retail business owners in Southern Ontario revealed that 75 percent of the women had been in business for three years or less. A study of women business owners in the Maritime Provinces of Canada found that 74 percent had been owners for less than ten years, and 46 percent for less than five years. While it appears to be true that an insignificant number of large firms are owned by women, one of the reasons for this is their short history as business owners. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Entrepreneurship in general has intrigued researchers over the years, resulting in the development of a number of theoretical models. It has generally been assumed, however, that the entrepreneur is male. One set of researchers even suggests that entrepreneurship is a way of demonstrating maleness. Historically and traditionally, women have been confined to the private sphere of domesticity, and hence have been denied access to the requisite resources for entrepreneurial entry--access to capital, business and technical education, and prior management experience. The cases of business ownership by women throughout the centuries have usually been those in which the woman inherited a business from her father or husband. Very occasionally, a woman started a business as a single person or, if married, with her husband's consent. Because of the scarcity of women entrepreneurs until relatively recently, information and knowledge about women as business owners or entrepreneurs has been limited. The first American studies on the subject emerged in the mid-1970s, in Canada, in the late 1970s, and in the United Kingdom, in the early 1980s. Since then, several studies have been conducted on various aspects of women as business owners. The largest study in the U. …