Family Matters: Gender, networks and entrepreneurial outcome

In this article, weexplore several factors thatmayhave an effect onbusiness start-ups, focusing onpossible gender differences. We conceptualize social capital as inhering in people's relations with others andexamine the association between men's andwomen's social capital and their likelihood ofstarting a business. Two aspects of respondents' social capital are highlighted: the extent towhich their business discussion networks are heterogeneous andthe extent towhich they contain a high proportion ofkin. We show that a high proportion of kin and homogeneity in the network, rather than a high proportion offemales in thenetwork orbeingfemale, are critical disadvantages facing potential small business owners. Historically,men have enjoyed severaladvantages over women in their lifechances. For example, men have had, on average, higher occupational status, a higher rate of self-employment, and higher incomes than women (Reskin 1993). Female-dominated occupations have been devalued, in part, because Americans consider work done by women less valuable, less important, and less difficult (England 1992). Men have also owned and controlled the great majority of businesses. In 1990 the self-employmentrate! for men was 120/0, whereas it wasonly 60/0 for women (Devine 1994). However, in the past several decades, women have made gains in occupational status, income, and business ownership. Many women are now employed in traditionally male occupations, and the pay gap between men and *A draft of this article was presented at the 1998 Conference on Entrepreneurship, lnsead, Fontainebleau, France. We thank Rachel Rosenfeld, Jeremy Reynolds, and the two reviewers for theirhelpfulcomments on earlier drafts. Direct correspondence to LindaA. Renzulli, Universit