Time-Use Patterns and Women Entrepreneurs

The twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in the number of women in the labor force, as well as a steady increase in the number of selfemployed women during the past three decades. This increase in labor force participation represents a striking change in the allocation of women’s time between work and home activities. Despite the growing literature examining self-employed women, little is known about how self-employed women divide their time between work and other life activities. The flexibility afforded by self-employment is often regarded as a way to better balance work and home activities. Indeed, the existing econometric studies indicate that women choose self-employment primarily because of family or lifestyle factors (Theresa Devine 1994; Richard K. Caputa and Arthur Dolinsky 1998; Richard J. Boden 1999; Greg Hundley 2000). Yet studies outside the economics literature seem to indicate that self-employed women do not necessarily experience more family satisfaction (Holly E. Buttner and Dorothy P. Moore 1997; Saroj Parasuraman and Claire A. Simmers 2001; Richard DeMartino, Robert Barbato, and Paul H. Jacques 2006). A source of the difference might be that the econometric studies use Human Capital aCquisition and EntrEprEnEursHip †