Gender Gaps in Innovation: From Entrepreneurship to Academic Science

Project Information

GenderGapsInnovation

Grant agreement ID: 101148992

DOI

10.3030/101148992

Project terminated on 31 July 2025

EC signature date 7 May 2024

Start date 1 August 2024

End date 31 July 2026

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 203 464,32

Coordinated by

TILBURG UNIVERSITY- UNIVERSITEIT VAN TILBURG
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GenderGapsInnovation (Gender Gaps in Innovation: From Entrepreneurship to Academic Science)

Reporting period: 2024-08-01 to 2026-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Innovation drives economic growth and social progress, but women continue to face barriers that limit their full participation in entrepreneurship and science. Around the world, female-owned businesses are often smaller and less profitable, and women in academia receive fewer opportunities, less recognition, and less support for the research areas they study. Moreover, critical research areas, such as health issues that predominantly affect women, remain under-studied. Given the implications for economic growth and societal wellbeing, the overarching goal of this research is to understand the determinants of the gender gaps in entrepreneurship and science as well as their consequences for innovation.

To address these knowledge gaps, this project explores (1) potential determinants of the gender gap in entrepreneurship, (2) investigate interventions and policies that can address these gaps; and (3) understand the consequences of the lack of gender diversity in innovative activities, especially in academic science, on the production of ideas and how ideas by women are perceived.

The project comprises three main work packages. The first examines how motherhood shapes women’s participation and outcomes in entrepreneurship. Using rich administrative data from the Netherlands, this work traces how childbirth affects women’s likelihood of remaining self-employed, the profitability of their businesses, and the kinds of industries they enter. It highlights how family responsibilities can widen gender gaps in entrepreneurship and provides new evidence on the challenges faced by self-employed mothers.

The second focuses on the role of professional networks in supporting women entrepreneurs. It asks whether access to business connections through low-cost digital platforms can improve outcomes for women-led firms. This work examines how networks shape collaboration, innovation, and firm growth, and whether network composition matters for women’s success.

The third turns to academic science and investigates how gender diversity affects innovation. It uses the historical shift of U.S. universities from male-only to coeducational to study how greater female representation changes the topics researchers pursue and the recognition of women’s contributions.

Together, these work packages provide new evidence on why gender gaps in entrepreneurship and science persist, and what greater diversity means for innovation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1: Motherhood and the Gender Gap in Self-Employment
We analyzed Dutch administrative microdata using an event-study design to document the impact of childbirth on men’s and women’s trajectories in self-employment. The analysis linked childbirth records with business ownership and financial outcomes, allowing us to track self-employment participation, profits, and industry specialization before and after childbirth. We find a significant motherhood effect on self-employment. Six years after childbirth, mothers experience a 16% decline in self-employment and a 26% decline in profits compared to fathers. We also show that women tend to shift into more flexible, female-customer-oriented industries following childbirth. A full draft of the paper has been completed, co-authored with Mery Ferrando, Teodora Tsankova, and Francesca Truffa, and submitted to a journal.

Work Package 2: Female Entrepreneurship and Professional Networks
We designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Ghana with a sample of 1,771 growth-oriented female entrepreneurs. Women were randomly assigned to online networking groups via WhatsApp, and we tracked firm outcomes using survey data. The analysis focused on business practices, innovation, profitability, and the composition of business collaborations. We find that access to online networking groups led to greater innovation, improved business practices, and a 21% increase in profits. These effects were concentrated in the upper tail of the distribution and were largest for women placed in groups with more-educated, higher-quality, and more diverse peers. The intervention also shifted collaborations away from friends and family towards professional contacts in the groups. The draft paper has been completed (with Edward Asiedu, Monica Lambon-Quayefio, and Francesca Truffa) and submitted to a journal. This study was awarded the IGL Annual Research Prize for Best Experimental Paper by Junior Scholars in 2025.

Work Package 3: Gender Diversity and Innovation in Science
We assembled and cleaned historical data on U.S. universities and scientific publications to study the impact of coeducation on research directions and recognition of women’s work. The analysis uses a difference-in-differences design, exploiting variation in when universities transitioned to coeducation between 1960 and 1990. Using large-scale publication data (Microsoft Academic Graph), combined with natural language processing techniques, we analyze how exposure to female undergraduates influenced faculty research agendas and citation patterns. Preliminary results show that the transition to coeducation was associated with shifts in research topics towards those more frequently pursued by women and changes in citation patterns, suggesting increased recognition of female-authored work. These results have been presented at academic workshops and conferences, and a draft paper is in progress (with Francesca Truffa).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This project has generated new insights into the determinants of gender gaps in entrepreneurship and science, as well as the broader consequences of diversity for innovation. Across the three work packages, the findings extend existing knowledge in several important ways.

Work Package 1: Motherhood and the Gender Gap in Self-Employment
Prior research has extensively studied motherhood’s role in traditional employment outcomes such as labor force participation or earnings, but little was known about its impact on self-employment. By using Dutch administrative data, this study provides one of the first systematic evidence on how childbirth affects women’s careers in self-employment. The results demonstrate significant and persistent declines in both participation and profitability for mothers relative to fathers, while also showing that mothers shift into more flexible and female-oriented sectors.

Work Package 2: Female Entrepreneurship and Professional Networks
This research provides novel causal evidence on the importance of professional networks for female entrepreneurs. While prior work has highlighted the role of networks for male managers and microenterprises, our study is the first to show that a low-cost, online networking intervention can significantly improve outcomes for female-owned firms.The results illustrate the potential of scalable, technology-enabled solutions to address gender gaps in entrepreneurship.

Work Package 3: How Female Representation Changes Science: Evidence from College Coeducation
While previous studies have documented that women receive fewer citations and face recognition gaps in academia, little causal evidence existed on how gender diversity changes the production and recognition of ideas. By exploiting the natural experiment of U.S. universities adopting coeducation, this study provides new evidence that increased female representation influences research agendas and citation practices. Preliminary findings suggest that exposure to gender diversity shifts the topics pursued by faculty and increases recognition of women’s contributions. This pushes beyond the current literature by directly linking institutional diversity to the direction and recognition of scientific innovation.