Female innovative entrepreneurship and maternity risk

Abstract

This paper documents the existence of an intensive margin of the gender gap in innovative entrepreneurship. Not only there are fewer women than men who become entrepreneurs, but female entrepreneurs also hold smaller equity stakes, make less substantial investments, and are less frequently appointed as firm executives compared to their male counterparts. Leveraging the context of emergency contraception deregulation in Italy and varying abortion service accessibility, I find that mitigating maternity risk narrows these gaps. Consequently, female-led firms become riskier and more attractive to venture capital investors during their early stages.