Pomme Theunissen successfully defends thesis
− 1 min readOn Tuesday 5 April, Pomme Theunissen successfully defended her PhD thesis on: “Challenges and opportunities of women in entrepreneurship. Essays on motherhood and access to finance”
Supervisors: Prof. dr. Andries de Grip & Dr. Annemarie Künn-Nelen
Although women and men are equally positive that entrepreneurship offers a good career path (Elam et al., 2019), women are underrepresented as entrepreneurs compared to men. The thesis focuses on two challenges to encourage more women to start their own business: (1) reconciling business and family concerns and (2) access to finance. In the context of the reconciliation of business and family concerns, the thesis focuses on the role of motherhood in entrepreneurship. In the context of the access to finance, the thesis shows that women can benefit from crowdfunding. More precisely, the thesis focuses on the following three questions:
- What are the effects of changes in parental leave policies on women’s decisions to become self-employed? (Chapter 2)
- Do female entrepreneurs have different campaign completion times compared to males when requesting a business loan through crowdfunding? (Chapter 3)
- What are the long-term labour market outcomes of mothers’ self-employment during their child’s early years? (Chapter 4)
Click here for the full dissertation.