Empowering women in entrepreneurship : a SWOT analysis

The literature of the field identified that women are considered to be less inclined to pursue entrepreneurship than men. This paper utilized a netnography, coding themes from over fifty journal publications discussing areas including entrepreneurship, women in entrepreneurship, and SWOT analysis of women in entrepreneurship. Its purpose was to determine a comprehensive list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to women engaging in the field of entrepreneurship. The determined themes were utilized to formulate the Student Perception Questionnaire administered to female students at Monmouth University. These students were currently enrolled at the university during the Fall 2018 semester and were determined to have entrepreneurial intentions due to previously completing an Entrepreneurship course or enrollment in a Fall 2018 and/or Spring 2019 course associated with entrepreneurship. The results of the quantitative data provided limited insight, but the qualitative data suggested female entrepreneurship students viewed barriers to success as similar to those presented in the literature. Further investigation is needed to determine if this is a generalized view of female entrepreneurship students. If these results are generalized entrepreneurship curricula may need to be adjusted accordingly.