Female Entrepreneurship in East and South-East Asia

5

The institutional environment of female entrepreneurship

Introduction

Hisrich and Brush¹ point out a number of trends that could be expected to facilitate the participation of women as entrepreneurs. Sex stereotypes may disappear or their effect may be weaker; more women may start to study business, engineering and science; and more opportunity may arise for women to gain experience in the labor market. At first glance, the business environment in East and South-East Asian countries, including the four selected ones, does not seem to be as gendered as presumed according to those standards. Industry-based and macro-level strategies have been pursued to remove legal and institutional barriers to female entrepreneurship and create an enabling ...