Good morning! Britain’s Supreme Court ruled trans women are not legally women, Elise Stefanik might run for N.Y. governor, and new research looks at how early exposure to entrepreneurship makes all the difference.
– Kid-friendly business. In the U.S. and across the rest of the world, there is an entrepreneurship gap between women and men: Women create fewer businesses, and the businesses they do create account for far less revenue than those of their male counterparts. What would it take to make up the difference?
According to research by Maddalena Ronchi, an assistant professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management, early exposure to other entrepreneurs could make significant headway.
Ronchi’s research makes use of multiple Danish population-wide registries that track the career paths and connections of nearly one million people from adolescence to adulthood—giving her a holistic view on outcomes for 786,660 individuals between 1980 and 1992. Using the data, she and her co-authors were able to investigate whether exposure to entrepreneurs early in life might influence whether someone, male or female, would later start a company.
The short answer: That early influence does indeed matter—but only for girls. Being exposed to a peer’s entrepreneur parent altered teen girls’ educational and career trajectories, making them more likely to continue their education after compulsory school—which ends at age 15 or 16—and less likely to hold low-wage jobs. The effect was not found when looking at the same data on teen boys.
Another interesting finding: The women who had early exposure to entrepreneurs had more successful businesses than those launched by men and women who did not. The businesses lasted longer and employed a higher share of women.
Although the reasons for the influence can be debated, Ronchi says it’s likely that there’s simply growing awareness at play—when teen girls learn that a certain career trajectory is available to them, one they may not have even known existed previously, they are more likely to pursue it. And learning about these jobs between the ages of 13 to 16, when Danish students are considering what the next step is in their educational journey, is crucial.
This research is important, Ronchi says, not just for those who care for gender equity and equal opportunity broadly, but because entrepreneurs create companies and jobs. Attracting the right talent, irrespective of gender, helps the economy. Though the research uses Danish data, she believes that the conclusions would hold up in the U.S. as well.
“In a way, this exposure is something that seems to be reducing not only the barriers that women may face in entering this profession, but also the barriers they may face in succeeding in this profession,” says Ronchi.
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
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