Think Entrepreneur, Think Male? Business Students' Assumptions About a Hypothetical Entrepreneur

Abstract

We used the Schein Descriptive Index to investigate the extent to which the stereotype of "entrepreneur" is male. Undergraduate business students rated a hypothetical male entrepreneur as similar to a gender-unspecified entrepreneur. A hypothetical female entrepreneur was rated as dissimilar to the male entrepreneur and to the unspecified entrepreneur. Two-thirds of participants given a description of a female entrepreneur recalled that entrepreneur as male. Four-fifths of those given a description of a male entrepreneur correctly recalled that entrepreneur as male.