Persistent gender attitudes and women entrepreneurship

Abstract

We examine whether gender norms - proxied by the outcome of Switzerland's 1981 public referendum on constitutional gender equality - continue to shape local female startup activity today, despite substantial population changes over the past four decades. Using startup data for all Swiss municipalities from 2016 to 2023, we find that municipalities that historically expressed stronger support for gender equality have significantly higher present women-to-men startup ratios. The estimated elasticity of this ratio with respect to the share of "yes" votes in the 1981 referendum is 0.165. This finding is robust to controlling for a subsequent referendum on gender roles, a rich set of municipality-specific characteristics, and contemporary policy measures. The relationship between historical voting outcomes and current women's entrepreneurship is stronger in municipalities with greater population stability - measured by the share of residents born locally - and in municipalities where residents are less likely to report a religious affiliation. While childcare spending is not statistically related to startup rates on its own, it is positively associated with the women-to-men startup ratio when interacted with historical gender norms, consistent with both formal and informal support mechanisms jointly shaping women's entrepreneurial activity.