NEW STUDY: Why more mothers with young children are starting businesses

Many people who run their own business think it fits well with family life.
Flexible working hours, being your own boss… But there is something completely different that drives women with young children to start a business.

– “The women we talked to waited to start a business until their child started preschool.
It is perceived as too complicated to run a business and be on parental leave,” says Magdalena Markowska, researcher at Jönköping International Business School.

Three types of entrepreneurial mothers

Together with colleagues, she has studied why more and more women with young children are starting businesses.
Through interviews, they have found three types: – First, there are the entrepreneurial mothers who see entrepreneurship as the obvious choice.
They are active protagonists in their decisions to become entrepreneurs at some point in their careers.
Such stories also include role models and people who inspired them.
– We also have those women who see entrepreneurship purely as a way of practicing their profession, with which they strongly identify.
Finally, there are the entrepreneurial women who slip into entrepreneurship with no plans whatsoever. They are often satisfied with their careers but parental leave makes them see entrepreneurship as an opportunity,” explains Magdalena Markowska, telling the story of one woman in the study who is a lawyer but quit her job to produce a certain type of baby food – an idea she had during her parental leave.

Time for reflection and an equal relationship crucial

The women testify that during their parental leave they have had plenty of time to reflect and think about their careers and other life choices.
And it turns out that time is a crucial factor in women’s decisions to become entrepreneurs.
– They described the choice to start a business as either a quest for an authentic self, in search of a challenging career or in response to an identified opportunity.
But whatever the path to entrepreneurship, time for reflection is something that unites the women’s stories.
Time is a resource.
Beyond time as a redeeming element, the researchers see another crucial factor for women with young children to take the leap to start a business.
– “The vast majority of women we have spoken to describe having an equal relationship.
The partner is involved in the housework and in taking care of the children,” says Magdalena Markowska.
Contactmagdalena.markowska@ju.seMer about the study The study was conducted by Magdalena Markowska, Helene Ahl and Lucia Naldi at Jönköping University and is published in the scientific journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. To the study. In another study, the researchers have seen a trend of more and more women with young children becoming entrepreneurs.
The same study shows that the more parental days the father takes, the greater the likelihood that the women (with young children) choose to start their own business. To the study.