Nilanjana Dutt

Abstract

Entrepreneurship scholars have established the persistence of the entrepreneurial gender gap. This study aims to identify one mechanism that might mitigate or exacerbate gendered outcomes: the processes by which women-led ventures gain access to resources. Using the context of start-up accelerators, we examine how selection committees' gender composition influences the selection rates of women-led ventures into acceleration programs. We expect that women-led ventures will be increasingly selected as the representation of women on selection committees improves. We test this theory using a unique database of 2,451 applicants to 49 social-innovation accelerators around the world, which allows us to examine who applies, who is selected, and, ultimately, who improves over time. We find that programs with a higher share of women selectors and those with an explicit focus on recruiting and empowering women attract more women applicants. However, while the number of women selectors is positively associated with improvements in selection rates for women-led ventures, the acceptance rates for women applying to women's empowerment programs are lower than those for comparable men. Despite this, we observe that women-led ventures improve their performance to a higher degree than those led by men. This result highlights the tremendous opportunity that accelerator programs are potentially missing by under-selecting women entrepreneurs. These results illuminate limits to gender-diverse selection committees' actions in implementing structural interventions to address the gender gap in entrepreneurship.