Do women-owned businesses have equal access to angel capital?

Gender Stereotypes and Venture Support Decisions: How Governmental Venture Capitalists Socially Construct Entrepreneurs’ Potential

“…Furthermore, the literature has outlined that financiers perceive female entrepreneurs as being different than male entrepreneurs, different from an "ideal" entrepreneur, and tend to relate entrepreneurial attributes more closely with men than women (Ahl, 2006). In other empirical studies, Fay and Williams found bankers perceive men to have more attributes associated with successful entrepreneurship than do women and perceive women as less capable or trustworthy than men (Becker-Blease & Sohl, 2007).…”

“…The biased distribution is revealed further in that female entrepreneurs, on average, applied for smaller amounts of funds compared to men entrepreneurs (cf. Becker-Blease & Sohl, 2007) and that women received smaller amounts of financing (Table 4). Furthermore, despite the fact that female entrepreneurs applied for and received smaller amounts of financing than men, female entrepreneurs are only awarded, on average, 25% of the applied amount, whereas men received, on average, 52% of the applied amount (Table 4).…”

“…Research in gender shows that a growing number of scholars are focusing on female entrepreneurs' access to debt finance and venture capital (e.g., Alsos, Isaksen, & Ljunggren, 2006;Becker-Blease & Sohl, 2007;Carter & Rosa, 2005;Fay & Williams, 1993;Jennings & Brush, 2013). Several studies have shown that female entrepreneurs face more difficulties in accessing finance from traditional debt and venture capital sources compared to their male entrepreneur counterparts.…”

“…For example, are female entrepreneurs denied finance or are they discouraged from applying for finance to a higher extent than male entrepreneurs van Hulten, 2012)? Although merely implied rather than explicitly studied or stated, scholars have suggested that different perceptions of entrepreneurs' potential exist in financial decision making (Becker-Blease & Sohl;Fielden, Davidson, Dawe, & Makin, 2003;Kwong, Jones-Evans, & Thompson, 2012;Wu & Chua, 2012). Such gender constructions may impact allocations of financing (Ahl, 2006;Alsos & Ljunggren, 2016;Marlow & Patton, 2005).…”

Women entrepreneurs’ financing revisited: taking stock and looking forward

“…For example, based on their examination of the role of women in the business angel market, Harrison and Mason (2007) have observed that in the UK, active women investors differ from their male counterparts only to a small extent. Generally, research has demonstrated the impact between a smaller number of women business angels and the gender-gap in angel funding rates and a tendency for women angels to refuse financing to women entrepreneurs, although they are more likely to seek funding from other women (Becker-Blease and Sohl 2007). Other scholars have explored loan-officers' decision-making in the UK and Italy, suggesting that their sex influences lending decisions (Bellucci, Borisov, and Zazzaro 2010;Carter et al 2007;Wilson et al 2007).…”