The Self-Employment Choice in Portugal: How Different are Women from Men

• Autor(es): Galego, Aurora
• Data: 2006
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/8444
• Origem: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
• Assunto(s): Occupational Choice; Self-employment; Gender differences
• Tipo de Documento: Research paper
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

Female self-employment has been increasing steadily over the last years in many countries. However, not much is know about women’s decision to become self-employed, especially in Europe. Some few studies typically conclude that most women choose self-employment because it offers more flexibility to combine work and family responsibilities or because of discrimination. Portugal displays one of the highest rates of self-employment in Europe and is one of the countries where the number of self-employed women has increased more. This paper studies gender differences in the determinants of self-employment in Portugal. Unlike other countries, there is no evidence that women choose self-employment because of family reasons. However, there are some suggestions that the choice of self-employment is driven by economic necessity, particularly in the case of women.