Gender Equality Paradoxes Among Entrepreneurs: Interactive Effects of Equality and Culture

Gender-equality paradoxes – surprising findings of stronger discrepancies in outcomes between men and women in gender egalitarian contexts – remain contested across a variety of domains. To provide broad and novel insights into this debate, we explore gender paradoxes for entrepreneurs across a variety of industries and consider the role of cultural Individualism. We analyze the relationship of gender with entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy, goals, and success among 59,993 entrepreneurs across 85 countries. We find evidence for paradoxes in terms of self-efficacy and success, but not goals, more clearly in Individualistic countries, and in relation to political and health equality – but not economic equality. Our results help to resolve discrepant findings by highlighting the cultural nature of gender-equality paradoxes and their closer relationship with self-concept rather than explicit intentions.