Gender Differences in Access to Private Investment Funding to Support the Development of New Technologies

Our descriptive analysis of a random sample of businesses that received Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards shows that female-owned businesses are disadvantaged, compared to male-owned businesses, in their ability to attract alternative investment funding to commercialize their technology-based innovations. Differences in the probability of receiving such financial support are most evident in the West and Northeast Census region states. Respectively, in states in those regions female-owned businesses are 17 and 9 percentage points less likely to attract alternative investment funding.