ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FEMALE YOUTH - KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, GENDER DIFFERENCES, AND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

Rapid expansion of creative opportunity recognition and business ventu re development suggests that the United Stales is experiencing a sea c hange with respect to entrepreneurship. Although trends and projection s indicate that women will play an increasingly important role in the entrepreneurial development of the economy, little is known about what female youth either understand or think about entrepreneurship. Promp ted by these underlying considerations, this study investigates survey darn from a national sample of female and male high school students c oncerning their entrepreneurship knowledge and attitudes-and whether t here are any significant gender differences in these areas. The Gallup Organization collected the study data from a sample that included app roximately 1,000 males and females. The results derived from legit ana lysis of the data suggest that there are many similarities between fem ales and males with respect to their knowledge of and opinions about e ntrepreneurship; however, they also exhibit significant gender differe nces in several areas. The study's findings lead to important curricul ar implications for entrepreneurship education in the nation's schools , especially in relation to females. Both males and females exhibit a low level of entrepreneurship knowledge. Females, however, are more aw are of their deficiencies in this knowledge area than are their male c ounterparts. Both sexes believe that further education can correct the knowledge problem. Although very, interested in starting a business, females still are significantly less likely than males (62% vs. 72%) t o want to start a business of their own. Both females and males overwh elmingly believe in the importance of giving back to the community-whi ch goes beyond providing jobs. The findings of this study also suggest a significant paradox in the ''pre-entrepreneurial'' characteristics of female and male youth. Whereas the majority of students aspire to s tart their own businesses, they hold certain views that could be detri mental to entrepreneurial success. For example, more than half of the youth sampled believe that price changes are objectionable business re sponses to shifts in the cost of production or to changes in market de mand. This pattern of response, moreover, is significantly more appare nt in females than in males. The results of this study provide compell ing evidence in support of the need to initiate or improve the entrepr eneurship education of our nation's youth. Their contributions may be strongly influenced by the foundation for entrepreneurship that is pro vided in the formative years of their education. Entrepreneurship educ ation should focus on key entrepreneurship concepts, as well as the fu ndamental linkages between the dynamics and assumptions of a competiti ve market system and the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship. T wo examples of educational programs that meet the particular needs of female youth with respect to these issues, as well as other key requir ements for entrepreneurship education, are described in the final sect ion of the study. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.