Female Entrepreneurship and its Factors of Influence

This paper starts with a definition of the term entrepreneurship and its relation to eco-nomic development in the second section. The third section is concerned with the elab-oration of women''s motives and intentions as well as the challenges and constraints affecting their decision to engage in entrepreneurial activity. The penultimate section deals with the influence of macro-environmental factors on the emergence of women-owned enterprises. Finally, the last section discusses and summarizes the results. Due to the fact that entrepreneurship includes a huge variety of activities and undergoes constant change, many definitions are existent. Thus, entrepreneurship is nowadays seen as a dynamic process requiring energy and passion towards new ideas and crea-tive solutions. Entrepreneurs are supposed to take risks, while simultaneously identifying opportunities . However, not every entrepreneur has the possibility to recognize opportunities, as his or her entry into entrepreneurship is strongly depend-ent on the surrounding environment. Some entrepreneurs are indeed able to ''respond to a perceived market opportunity. Others are forced into starting a business due to unfa-vorable circumstances'' . Unfavorable circumstances are, for example, the unavailability of ''appropriate paid employment in recessionary economic conditions''.