Other Key Differences – Disparities in Managerial Occupations and Industries
The study reported that more self-employed women held managerial occupations in their own businesses than do wage- and salary-earning women. However, more self-employed men still hold managerial occupations than do self-employed women.In industries where there is less overall female participation (such as communications, transportation, wholesale trade, manufacturing, and construction) there is a lower rate of unemployment for self-employed women than there is in the same industries for wage- and salary-earning women.
It also reported that self-employed women tend to participate in different industries than other working women. This disparity, by my own observation is likely due to women in the workforce being limited by gender discrimination and fewer opportunities - not because working women are less capable of participating in certain industries than self-employed women.
The study summarizes that there is “no strong association between such factors as age, current earnings, education, and income diversity and self-employment among women” but that there is significant differences in most human capital variables when comparing wage- and salary-earning women to self-employed women.
Summary highlights include:
- There is a strong association between holding a managerial occupation and industry sector participation and self-employment among women;
- Wage- and salary-earning women are more often employed in industries typically associated as “female,” and more likely to be employed in social or education service industries than self-employed women;
- By a slight margin more self-employed minorities had a college degree than self-employed whites, and self-employed women had more education than wage- and salary-earning women;
- More self-employed women are between the ages of 40 and 59 than any other age group; and
- Most self-employed women tend to fall into either the lower earning quadrant, or upper earning quadrant.
Source:
Darrene Hackler, Ellen Harpel, and Heike Mayer—Business Development Advisors, Arlington, VA 22201 [74] pages, under contract no SBAHQ-06-M-0481. “Human Capital and Women’s Business Ownership.” Small Business Research Summary. April 2008.
