New Study about Self-Employed Women
A new study from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, Self-Employed Women and Time Use, offers some interesting info about how male and female entrepreneurs spend their time.
Past research has showed that women are more likely than men to choose entrepreneurship based on lifestyle and family factors, such as wanting to spend more time with their children; men are more likely to choose entrepreneurship based on its potential for greater income. The study seemed to bear this out, showing that, compared to self-employed men, self-employed women spend less time on work and more time on household activities and child care.
Here are some of the findings:
Self-employed women work about 1.5 hours less per day (about 10 fewer hours per week) than self-employed men.
Self-employed women spend about 6more hours in household activities each week than self-employed men.
Women generally spend more time on primary child-care activities than do men, but the effects are largest for self-employed women; they spend about 3 more hours per week on primary child care than self-employed men.
The difference is even larger when it comes to secondary child care (where a parent is at the same location as the child but is mostly engaged in another activity, such as work). Self-employed women spend 6.4 more hours per week on secondary child care than self-employed men.
For self-employed women, each additional child in the household means 2.4 fewer work hours per week.
Being married has opposite effects on the time use of self-employed women and men. Married self-employed women work 4.5 hours fewer than unmarried self-employed women, but married self-employed men work almost 4 more hours per week than unmarried self-employed men.
If you’re a married entrepreneur with kids, you’re probably nodding in recognition right now.
Another key finding: Women are about 57 percent less likely than men to start businesses. The study’s authors suggest that since work/life balance seems to be a key reason women start businesses, developing policies to make this easier might encourage more women to become entrepreneurs.
What’s your take on it all? Do you wish you had more time for your family, or for your business, or both? I’m curious to know how you feel about the imbalance?
Past research has showed that women are more likely than men to choose entrepreneurship based on lifestyle and family factors, such as wanting to spend more time with their children; men are more likely to choose entrepreneurship based on its potential for greater income. The study seemed to bear this out, showing that, compared to self-employed men, self-employed women spend less time on work and more time on household activities and child care.
Here are some of the findings:
Self-employed women work about 1.5 hours less per day (about 10 fewer hours per week) than self-employed men.
Self-employed women spend about 6more hours in household activities each week than self-employed men.
Women generally spend more time on primary child-care activities than do men, but the effects are largest for self-employed women; they spend about 3 more hours per week on primary child care than self-employed men.
The difference is even larger when it comes to secondary child care (where a parent is at the same location as the child but is mostly engaged in another activity, such as work). Self-employed women spend 6.4 more hours per week on secondary child care than self-employed men.
For self-employed women, each additional child in the household means 2.4 fewer work hours per week.
Being married has opposite effects on the time use of self-employed women and men. Married self-employed women work 4.5 hours fewer than unmarried self-employed women, but married self-employed men work almost 4 more hours per week than unmarried self-employed men.
If you’re a married entrepreneur with kids, you’re probably nodding in recognition right now.
Another key finding: Women are about 57 percent less likely than men to start businesses. The study’s authors suggest that since work/life balance seems to be a key reason women start businesses, developing policies to make this easier might encourage more women to become entrepreneurs.
What’s your take on it all? Do you wish you had more time for your family, or for your business, or both? I’m curious to know how you feel about the imbalance?
Tags: balance, family, self-employed women, women in business
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Erika Martinez on -
This is a very interesting article. I am self employed part-time but I also work full time in an office. I would love to stay home and take care of my girls but for now I need to help my husband with the bills. Thats the reason I got started selling Celebrating HOME to eventually stay home but only time will tell. I was nodding all the way through it!
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Permalink Reply by Dannye Williamsen on -
Just from my own experience with my clients, I would say that women entrepreneurs with children do spend less time working in their entrepreneurial business than men out of necessity. However, those without children tend to spend those extra hours striving to reach their business goals, and I would venture to say that they hang in there as long or longer than their male counterparts every day.
I am a strong believer in balance. I coach my clients that if you want your business success to be sustainable, you have to achieve balance in the rest of your life as well. Your life is not just about your business or your family or your friends or yourself. Your relationship to all these areas in your life play a critical part in the expression that is YOU. Therefore, a serious imbalance in any part of your life impacts the quality of your expression in other areas.
The greatest difficulties arise, it seems, when the entrepreneurial effort is more about making money than it is about expressing one's passion. When such a huge part of your life is not tied to one of your core Life Intentions, it is very likely to lead to imbalance. And that imbalance can manifest in many different ways, both outward and inward.
Dannye Williamsen
The Solopreneur's Coach
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