FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP – AS POTENTIAL BENEFIT TO THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SERBIA

A serious social crisis, especially in an economic sphere, creates the need to reassess all social values and possibilities, including the status and role of women in Serbian society, economy, and the possibilities of their benefit to the over-all development. The results of recent research indicate that gender differences contribute to more successful busi-ness of enterprises and that female entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as underdeveloped and untapped po-tential for economic growth. Statistical data show that the share of female enterprises in the total number of SMEs in Serbia is about 26%. The main findings of the research on student attitudes towards entrepreneurship indicate that: women still prefer well-paid jobs to their own businesses, a key motive of women for setting up their own business is a desire for independence, and their major constraint is a lack of material resources. Women consider that crucial competencies for setting up a business are developing an entrepreneurial spirit and creative thinking, while more than two thirds of women would develop their business in the field of services and education. The basic messages of the paper are focused in two directions: firstly, it is necessary that the state defines a set of regulatory measures in order to create a business environment for faster growth of female entrepreneurship in Serbia, considering the cur-rent state of the SME sector and additional limitations caused by the economic crisis; and secondly, it is necessary to make a relevant and thorough analysis of female entrepreneurship in order to monitor its development and provide an adequate mechanism for its encouragement