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Original Article

Kick-Starting Female Careers

Attracting Women to Entrepreneurship Programs

Published Online:November 02, 2018https://doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000209

Abstract

Abstract. Entrepreneurship programs often aim at increasing women’s lower entrepreneurial activities. We investigate how advertisements for entrepreneurship programs can be designed to increase women’s application intentions. Results of an experiment with 156 women showed that women indicate (1) lower self-ascribed fit to and interest in the program after viewing a male-typed image (compared to a gender-neutral or female-typed image) in the advertisement; and (2) lower self-ascribed fit to and interest in the program as well as lower application intentions if the German masculine linguistic form of the term “entrepreneur” (compared to the gender-fair word pair “female and male entrepreneur”) is used in the recruitment advertisement. Women’s reactions are most negative when both a male-typed image and the masculine linguistic form appear in the advertisement. Self-ascribed fit and program interest mediate the relationship of advertisement characteristics on application intentions.

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