In small businesses, male and female business owners are more alike than we think

• by Ayushi Misra, Kunal Sharma and Sadia Shahnaz
• Feb 13, 2025
• 4 min

Women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh exhibit confidence, business acumen, and growth aspirations equal to men. However, gender biases and structural barriers hinder their progress. A study debunks stereotypes, showing similar financial management, customer relations, and investment patterns across genders. Strengthening inclusive support systems is crucial.

Women-owned businesses are inferior to those owned by men—both in terms of their owners’ confidence and business practices. This unfortunate sexist notion found prominence among people we interviewed in our research globally and, more recently, in Bangladesh. Data from the Women Business Diaries project in Bangladesh suggests a persistent perception that female business owners lack the aspiration, structure, or success of their male counterparts. Such misconceptions limit the potential of women-led enterprises and stifle their ability to scale, innovate, and contribute significantly to the economy.

Despite policy interventions, financial service providers often make credit decisions for women-led businesses based on the influence of male family members, especially for collateral-based or larger loans. This was a key finding that our previous blog covered in MSC’s Bangladesh study. Moreover, many banking professionals tend to trust women’s financial and business management skills less than men. Bureaucratic hurdles and gender bias raise barriers for women when they seek trade licenses, which restricts their access to affordable loans and opportunities for business growth.

The analysis of the Women Business Diaries project led us to select businesses with similar characteristics and focused on a diarist’s monthly income, expense, and profit. We removed outliers using the Interquartile Range (IQR) method to reduce the influence of extreme values and ensure a more homogenous sample. Next, we used an Euclidean distance algorithm to match each male diarist with a similar female diarist. This approach resulted in a refined dataset of 52 male and 75 female comparable diarists.

From the analysis, we found that women entrepreneurs are just as capable and ambitious as their male peers. Female business owners adopt similar practices, show equal confidence in key business areas, and share comparable aspirations for growth. The findings challenge stereotypes about women being less driven or effective in business.

Female business owners follow business practices akin to their male counterparts

Both women and men prioritize essential business metrics—financial management, growth, and operational consistency—and exhibit strikingly comparable approaches.

• Record-keeping: How women and men maintain their business records differ slightly, although the overall approach of both genders is almost identical.
• Supply chain management: Both male and female business owners favor direct supplier interactions and often place orders in person. Any differences in order frequency and supplier network size are negligible.
• Customer management and demand patterns: Both genders source from local markets. Both male and female business owners experience high demand during peak periods, such as Eid. Both deal with increased customer visits to their stores to place and collect orders.
• Money management behavior: Business owners of both genders actively plan for future expenses by setting aside funds. Cash management practices show similarity, with both groups maintaining similar cash reserves. Savings behavior also parallels, with 37% of male and 36% of female business owners saving in banks over a six-month period (Oct 2023 – Feb 2024). The median deposit amount is nearly identical, at BDT 1,300 (USD 11) for women and BDT 1,250 (USD 10) for men.

The figures below give a snapshot of our detailed findings across these four practices.

The gender-based difference in confidence levels in key business areas is almost zero

Confidence levels across essential business functions are nearly identical between male and female business owners. These functions include supply chain management, customer relations, record-keeping, and interactions with financial service providers. Notably, women entrepreneurs display a strong, consistent level of self-assurance when they negotiate with suppliers, manage customer expectations, or handle finances, which challenges the stereotype that they may lack confidence in business management.

Male- and female-owned businesses have similar aspirations and approaches to business growth

Both male and female business owners share similar investment priorities and focus on upgrades, such as shop infrastructure improvements and inventory expansion. This indicates that growth strategies are aligned across genders. Both male and female entrepreneurs prioritize reinvestment in their businesses to enhance operations and meet increasing demand. Close to six in 10 female and male business owners invested in growth activities between April 2023 and April 2024.

Additionally, the percentage of businesses that experienced significant revenue growth is comparable between genders.

We analyzed the significant growth or decline using revenue data gathered through daily diaries and evaluated using the Mann Kendal trend test. These findings show that female entrepreneurs thrive at par with their male counterparts under comparable structural systems, such as markets and support mechanisms.

The key takeaway for stakeholders—donors, policymakers, and practitioners—is the urgent need to strengthen or establish structural systems that are inclusive and effective for both women and men.

We must find ways to address this critical gap to build equitable and sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems. For example, nearly 50% of diarists reported that none of their critical entrepreneurship needs were met, and only 1% had all their critical needs fulfilled. These needs span six key ecosystem areas: Entrepreneurship promotion, access to finance, business and technical skills, mentoring and networking, market linkages, and legal support. Addressing these gaps is essential for women entrepreneurs to reach their full potential.

In the next part of this blog, we will dive deeper into the needs of these female entrepreneurs.