Female Entrepreneurship

In this thesis the determinants that influenced women, born in the beginning of the 20th century to become self-employed are explored. In cooperation with ERGO, a research group within the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, 57 of the original participants of the Rotterdam Study were approached for this research. More than half of these women did not appear to be self-employed at any moment of their lives. This not only influenced this research, but may also influence the Rotterdam Study, which investigates the influence of human genes as a determinant on actual entrepreneurship. The constant comparative method of Glaser and Strauss (1967) is used for this research. Their method codes different events in such a way that they can be compared. The biographies were set up by using a narrative method constructed by Riessman (1993). My Results show that there were no significant differences between the participants and the results of previous studies. Most women possess more than half of the characteristics identified by previous studies. Even one woman possesses five of the six traits. Education is a trait which seemed to have a positive influence on actual entrepreneurship for six out of the seven women. Family background seemed to be the least influential determinant. Furthermore, I found that their main objective to start their own business is to be independent. They were able to find a balance between earning money and raising their children.