In a nutshell
Female entrepreneurial role models increased female students’ confidence in their ability to succeed in entrepreneurship – and made them more likely to pursue entrepreneurial career paths afterwards.
Entrepreneurship education likes to present itself as open to everyone. The entrepreneur, after all, is supposed to be someone who sees opportunities that others don’t, solves problems creatively, and carves their own path through uncertainty. In theory, that could describe almost anyone. In practice, though, we often picture something much narrower.
For decades, research has shown that entrepreneurship is often culturally associated with traits traditionally coded as masculine – such as assertiveness, competitiveness, independence, and risk-taking. Not because these traits inherently belong to men, of course, but because they have historically shaped dominant images of what an entrepreneur is supposed to look and act like. Those assumptions shape who tends to feel naturally “suited” for entrepreneurship in the first place, and unfortunately they also tend to seep into entrepreneurship education. The examples used, the success stories highlighted, and the kinds of entrepreneurial behaviour that receive the most attention or praise have often disproportionately centred men.
This study therefore wanted to look at how we can make entrepreneurship education more equal by introducing female students to the opposite. More specifically, the researchers looked at whether exposure to successful female entrepreneurs could affect how likely female students were to see themselves pursuing entrepreneurial careers, particularly by joining young firms after graduation.
What they found was that role models did matter, and in fairly concrete ways. Female students who were exposed to female entrepreneurial role models developed higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy, meaning stronger confidence in their ability to succeed in entrepreneurial environments. That increase in self-efficacy was then linked to a greater likelihood of pursuing careers in young firms – which is an important pathway into entrepreneurship, especially for people who may not immediately see founding a company themselves as realistic or accessible.
Publication year: May 2026
Authors:Laura Bechthold, Laura Rosendahl Huber, & Kimberly A. Eddleston
Institutions: Bavarian Foresight-Institute, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Germany; Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Germany; D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, United States
Study type: Longitudinal field experiment
Sample Size:1120 business students assigned to 230 teams collaborating with 115 early-stage entrepreneurs over one semester. The final analysis was based on 439 short-term and 459 long-term observations.
Research focus: Investigating whether exposure to female entrepreneurial role models influences female students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and early entrepreneurial career choices.
Research Methodology: Field experiment using random assignment of male and female business students to teams working with male and female entrepreneurs. The study used a pre-test/post-test design, collected data from both students and entrepreneurs, and tracked students’ career choices six years after the intervention.
Main findings: Female students exposed to female entrepreneurial role models developed higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy and became 10% more likely to pursue careers in young firms after graduation. The findings suggest that role models can shape entrepreneurial career choices by influencing whether students see entrepreneurship as attainable and realistic for themselves.
Citation: Bechthold, L., Huber, L. R., & Eddleston, K. A. (2026). Debiasing entrepreneurial careers: A field experiment on female role model effects on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and early-stage career choices. Journal of Business Venturing, 41(3), 106582. Link
Importantly, the study was not arguing that women simply “lack confidence,” nor that representation alone can erase broader structural inequalities surrounding entrepreneurship and gender. Instead, the findings point to a more specific mechanism: exposure to female entrepreneurial role models appeared to strengthen female students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which in turn made entrepreneurial career paths feel more attainable. And because the researchers followed the students over time and accounted for things like peer influence and other role models too, the effect seems to be genuinely connected to the female role models themselves.
This means that role models do more than provide inspiration; they also shape how students relate to entrepreneurship itself. It’s an important reminder that as educators we’re not just teaching students how to pitch business ideas or analyse market opportunities – we’re also teaching them who entrepreneurship is “for”. Through guest speakers, examples, case studies, classroom discussions, and the kinds of entrepreneurial journeys that are highlighted, educators inevitably shape which futures feel imaginable to different students.
So what this study ultimately suggests is that representation is not merely symbolic. Seeing someone who resembles you succeed in a field can influence whether that path feels imaginable for you in the first place; and while this study focused specifically on female students and female entrepreneurial role models, its implications likely stretch further. After all, it’s quite difficult to pursue a future that you’ve never really been able to picture yourself in.
Related reading: Rethinking Who Fits the Mould in Entrepreneurship Education, Gender Bias in Entrepreneurial Funding, and Making Entrepreneurship Feel Doable.
