Can Entrepreneurship Education Reduce Stereotypes Against Women Entrepreneurship

English (OpenAlex)

The aim of this study is to investigate whether entrepreneurship trainings can reduce stereotypes against women entrepreneurship. With this aim socio-psychological obstacles to women entrepreneurship in Turkey are examined, and an experimental study is carried out. Entrepreneurship courses were given with a special emphasis on women entrepreneurship and gender issues. To evaluate the out puts of the experimental study, a questionnaire was designed and applied to students. In order to make a comparison, the same questionnaire was applied to students from two other universities, who have taken entrepreneurship courses through the classical method and curricula. Survey tool includes 21 statements on women entrepreneurship, 5 positive and 16 negative. A non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that the experimental group would score lower in negative statements and higher in positive statements, on the average, than the non-experimental group. Test results indicate that mean ranks for the two groups differ significantly from each other in 12 items (p<.05). Experimental group score significantly higher than the non-experimental group in 4 positive and 1 negative statements; and lower than the non-experimental group in 7 negative statements. Compared to non-experimental group, experimental group seems to have higher scoring for awareness and advocacy of women entrepreneurship and lower scoring for socio-psychological obstacles against women entrepreneurship. According to the survey results, it can be concluded that modification of entrepreneurship education curricula will contribute to reduce stereotypes hindering women entrepreneurship.