Exploring Entrepreneurship among STEM Women with Mid-career Break

Abstract

Women in STEM with mid-career break form an important technical resource for any country. This segment has largely been overlooked in the literature in terms of aspects related to entrepreneurship development among such women. This paper assesses the entrepreneurial intentions and level of perceived barriers to entrepreneurship among women in STEM with mid-career break. The primary data was derived from 227 women in STEM areas, who took a mid-career break of at least one year. Multinomial logistic regression and Ordinal logistic regression were performed to analyze the results. The findings indicated high entrepreneurial intentions among women in STEM with midcareer break, which are not affected by their marital status, educational qualification level, years of work experience or current working status. Large number of women fell in the categories of ’High’ and ’Moderate’ perceived barriers to entrepreneurship. No predictors could be identified for the level of perceived barriers. Major perceived barriers included poor professional network, lack of appropriate information, poor entrepreneurial ecosystem and lack of initial investment. The study could be used by governments across emerging economies to bring the underutilized STEM women resource to main stream economy