A U-shaped curve of female entrepreneurs? The development of women's entrepreneurship in the Netherlands, 1899–2020

Many economic historians have shown that the relationship between female labour force participation and economic development is U-shaped. However, most studies on this phenomenon do not differentiate between female wage labourers and entrepreneurs. We argue that this is problematic because standard explanations of women's wage work do not necessarily apply to entrepreneurs. To demonstrate this, this paper studies female entrepreneurship in the Netherlands between 1899 and 2020. We show that the U-shaped curve of female labour force participation does not hold for entrepreneurs because life-cycle events – such as marriage and having children – stimulated rather than discouraged women to take up entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, structural change of the economy did not equally affect the demand for female wage labourers and entrepreneurs. By integrating an entrepreneurship perspective, this research provides a more complete understanding of the diversity in women's occupational choices when constrained by institutional and individual conditions.