QUALITATIVE FEATURES OF WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA: THE SECTORAL DISTRIBUTION PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Although growing in volume, women’s entrepreneurship is still significantly underrepresented relative to the entrepreneurial activities of men. Moreover, in most of the contexts, quantitative performance of female entrepreneurs are worse, compared to the ones achieved by their male counterparts. Though certainly important, knowing only the quantitative performance of female entrepreneurs is not enough for improving their competitiveness and socio-economic status. Quantitative performance are the results of certain qualitative features of women’s entrepreneurial activities, which are often neglected in the public discourse. The aim of the study is to provide an overview of the sectoral structure of women’s entrepreneurship from the less studied contexts, such Serbian environment is. Working with data provided by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, the study empirically tests and supports the hypotheses that there are differences in the sectoral distribution of female and male entrepreneurs in the Republic of Serbia, with Serbian female entrepreneurs being overrepresented in the services sector. Moreover, the results show women’s observed participation in the services sector is significantly higher than the one which would be expected given the sectoral structure of the general population of entrepreneurs. The paper discusses its theoretical and practical contributions as well.