not surprisingly therefore research suggests that the social political and cultural expectations regarding a women s responsibilities for the home and family is one explanation as to why womenowned businesses do not grow as large as those owned by men ernst young in general women are less confident than men about whether they have the knowledge skills and experience required to start and run a new business kelley et al differences between genders are particularly stark in developed economies such as japan western europe and the united states in addition women tend to be more riskaverse than their male counterparts and more likely to let fear of failure prevent them from starting a business kelley et al not surprisingly there is a direct correlation between capability perceptions and the rates of earlystage entrepreneurship in other words in those economies where women have less confidence in their ability to startand run a new businessthey areinfactstarting and running fewer businesses