All about My Mother : Factors Influencing Women’s Entrepreneurship

Using data on all businesses started by mothers of young children in Sweden between 2000 and 2014, we investigate what factors are the most important drivers of entrepreneurship among mothers. We find that being unemployed or being an immigrant are important drivers of entrepreneurship among mothers. However, our findings show that the most important and primary determinant of entrepreneurship by mothers in Sweden is the amount of paternity leave taken by their partners. These findings suggest that in institutional contexts such as Sweden gender inequality is not a persistent feature of most households and that women can make career choices by negotiating with their partners who will make use of the parental benefits offered by the government