Challenges for the New Generation of Female Entrepreneurs: An Assessment of the Studies

Despite the increased interest in entrepreneurship across scientific and professional fields over the years, existing research in female entrepreneurship has remained largely disjointed in the academic literature, due to the different theories, approaches, methodologies, and research questions addressed, making it difficult to take stock of what is known about women’s entrepreneurial activity. This paper aims at deepening the contribution of female entrepreneurship to organizational success/resilience, and so to the economic recovery, by conducting a review of literature and a content analysis of the most frequent topics on the subject and their chronological evolution over time. This paper, on the one hand, provides a structured reference point to carry research on gender entrepreneurship forward into specific sub-areas. On the other hand, it offers insights about the opportunities and barrier that can explain the women’s interest and motivation for entrepreneurship encompassing a range of aspects (i.e., performance, governance, disclosure, CSR), encouraging them to become effective entrepreneurs and sustain the growth in our economies and societies.