This research explores the relationship between sex, gender-role orientation and the decision to become an entrepreneur. Based on a questionnaire, this article follows the Bem Sex-Role Inventory methodology to perform an analysis by means of multiple regression models. The outcomes show that gender-role orientation is a better predictor of the decision to become an entrepreneur than biological sex. Moreover, the results for whole sample confirm the relationship between masculine and androgynous gender-role orientation and entrepreneurial intention, while there is also evidence of feminine gender-role orientation when we consider only women.

The principal objective of this paper is an analysis of the stereotypical figure of the entrepreneur in the Spanish context, from a perspective of gender. We provide evidence that the characteristics largely associated with an entrepreneurial individual are stereotypically male or androgynous, with a notable absence of female typologies. Our findings suggest that this relationship has an influence on the continued predominance of male entrepreneurial activity. This study contributes to the growing empirical literature on female entrepreneurship from an understudied perspective; gender stereotyping, demonstrating that socially constructed gender stereotyping persists in contemporary Spanish culture.