Female entrepreneurs do not exist in a vacuum but are influenced by previous work experience and networks so it is no wonder that women’s entrepreneurial activity tends to be concentrated in specific sectors. Occupation crowding in terms of jobs being considered ‘male’ or ‘female’ jobs influences entrepreneurship crowding resulting in female entrepreneurial activities being concentrated in a small number of sectors. In this paper, we (1) Introduce a quantitative indicator that measures the male/female labor force balance and calculate it for a 30 country sample; (2) Identify the sectors which are most affected by occupational and entrepreneurship crowding; and (3) Discuss the policy implications of these findings.

1. Female Occupational Crowding and Entrepreneurial
Outcomes:
Measurement and Public Policy Implications
Ruta Aidis, PhD
Senior Fellow, George Mason University
Gender-GEDI Project Director, The GEDI Institute
Ainsley Lloyd
Research Consultant
The GEDI Institute
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 1

2. Main topics
•Women
•Work
•Entrepreneurship
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 2

3. Outline
• Introduction
• The Why
• Measuring occupational crowding & results
• Some interesting pie charts
• Consequences & implications
• Limitations & future research
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 3

4. Introduction…..consider…
Your job is your first business incubator…
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 4

5. Starting point: The need for better
measurement tools to capture the labor
force differences between men and
women for the 2014 Gender - GEDI
• www.dell.com/women
• www.thegedi.org
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014
The Why…
5

6. Occupational Crowding
• Refers to the existence of male or female jobs in a country’s economy
• Crowding benefits some groups by reducing competition for the most
desirable occupations (Bergman 1974)
• Globally women are working in more limited sectors than men
• OECD countries – 50% of women work in 11 or fewer occupational
groups vs. 50% of men work in 20+ occupational groups.
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 6

7. How to measure gender parity in the labor
force?
• Problem: Basic male/female labor force participation rates hide sector
by sector differences
• Solution: use ILO employment by sector
• Standardized sector divisions across countries
• Sex-disaggregated data
• Selected a 30 country pilot sample: but data only available for 23 of 30
selected countries with data between 2009 and 2013
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 7

8. Sectors
1. Accommodation and food service activities
2. Activities of households as employers;
undifferentiated goods- and services-producing
activities of households for own
use
3. Administrative and support service
activities
4. Agriculture, forestry and fishing
5. Arts, entertainment and recreation
6. Community, Social and Personal Services
7. Construction
8. Education
9. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning
supply
10. Extraterritorial organizations and bodies
11. Financial and insurance activities
12. Fishing
13. Human health and social work activities
14. Information and communication
15. Hotels and restaurants
16. Manufacturing
17. Mining and quarrying
18. Not elsewhere classified
19. Other service activities
20. Professional, scientific and technical
activities
21. Public administration and defense;
compulsory social security
22. Real estate activities
23. Transportation and storage
24. Water supply; sewerage, waste
management and remediation activities
25. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor
vehicles and motorcycles
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 8

9. Creating a comparable scoring system
An exact 1:1 male : female ratio is undesirably hard to achieve
• Allow for a range: a ratio between 4:6 or 6:4 is “balanced”
Not all countries have all sectors
• Use a percent of relevant sectors: what percentage of sectors have gender
balance?
Some sectors account for very little
• Use a materiality threshold: Count only sectors that employ >1% of total labor
force
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 9

10. Pilot study
• Based on 23 developing, emerging and developed economies
worldwide;
• Including six main regions: Latin America, North America, Europe,
East Asia, South Asia, Africa and MENA countries.
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 10

11. Results 1
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Brazil
Chile
Denmark
Egypt
France
Germany
India
Japan
Korea
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
Pakistan
Panama
Peru
Poland
Russia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
Sectors
total sectors sectors with balance
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 11

12. Results 2
• 7 countries 0.40 or greater; in 2 countries 0 sectors with labor force
parity
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 12
0.6
0.59
0.5
0.47
0.45
0.44
0.4
0.38
0.38
0.38
0.36
0.35
0.32
0.31
0.27
0.27
0.23
0.21
0.2
0.13
0.13
0
0
CHART TITLE

13. US Comparison: Women and men-owned
businesses according to select sectors
Healthcare and social assistance
48 % 52%
women men
Mining Quarrying Oil
15%
85%
women men
9%
Construction
91%
women men
Data source: National Women’s Business Council – based on 2007 Census data
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 13

14. US Comparison: Women and men labor force
participation in select sectors
Healthcare
78%
22%
women men
Mining, Quarrying, Oil
13%
87%
Women Men
Construction
9%
91%
Data source: Catalyst (2013) R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 14

15. Consequences & implications
Occupational crowding = Entrepreneurship crowding
• Occupational crowding contributes to gender pay gap because women are
more likely to work in lower-paid occupations than men (OECD Gender
Brief 2010) (ILO 2010);
• Once sector, size and age of the firm are controlled for firm performance
and profitability gendered differences diminishes significantly (OECD
2012);
• Female entrepreneur ‘crossovers’ make similar income as male
entrepreneurs in that sector and make more than other non-crossover
female entrepreneurs;
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 15

16. Limitations
• ILO sector specifications are too broad
• Differences exist within a sector
Further research
• Adding more countries
• In depth sector analysis at the country level
• Occupational crowding occurs before the ‘job’
R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 16