Entrepreneurship in Russia: the Gender Aspect

Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the economy of modern Russia. It is believed that men’s entrepreneurship makes a significant contribution to the development of the country's economy. Researchers refute this opinion. Women's entrepreneurship continuously grows. However, this cluster is biased, as a result there is a problem of adequate perception of women entrepreneurs, the problem of imperfection of the infrastructure to support women's entrepreneurship. In addition, there is a lack of understanding of what factors can influence women's entrepreneurial intentions in different economic periods. Thus, the aim of this work is to study the factors of the individual level that influence the formation of women's entrepreneurial intentions in Russia in the economically favorable (2013) and crisis years (2014). The tasks include the analysis of the formation of women's entrepreneurship, the identification of the features of women's and men's entrepreneurship, the study of the causes of the gender gap, the assessment of the factors of the individual level that have an impact on the formation of women's entrepreneurial intentions. To achieve the goal, this paper uses an econometric analysis, the data were obtained by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor using for 2013 and 2014 years. According to the results of the study, the most significant impact on the presence of women's entrepreneurial intentions have: confidence in one’s knowledge, personal acquaintance with the entrepreneur, fear of failure, the availability of favorable conditions in the country, full employment and the status of the unemployed (due to retirement age/legal capacity).