WVU study links support for rural women entrepreneurs to economic growth

Though rural women entrepreneurs make up only a small portion of the self-employed across the United States, new West Virginia University research shows they are crucial to overall economic success.

A study by Heather Stephens, director of the WVU Regional Research Institute, and Xiaoyin Li a postdoctoral fellow, with Jason S. Entsminger, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Maine, found self-employed women in rural areas are associated with wage-and-salary employment growth. By addressing barriers such as the lack of both child care and financial institutions, rural communities can reap the economic benefits of supporting local women entrepreneurs.

"Rural women's employment decisions are understudied compared to women in cities, partially because survey data has limited observations in rural areas," Stephens said.

"National samples are largely dominated by urban observations and many previous studies have focused on the self-employment decisions by men, as men are self-employed at higher rates than women. Therefore, prior studies may mask the unique challenges rural women entrepreneurs face. Understanding and providing support for them could encourage rural women to start businesses. In addition, our study shows that having more self-employed women can benefit broader economic growth in rural communities."

The researchers examined data from 1,618 rural counties across the United States from 2011 to 2019 to determine how factors within the communities affected the rate of female self-employment.

The study found that for women in rural areas to succeed in their businesses, communities must address the lack of child care, financial institutions, educational opportunities and community support.

"The most surprising thing that we found is the different roles of child care access in more rural communities as opposed to urban communities or rural communities close to urban areas," Li said.

"Previous research has mostly focused on women in cities or urban areas, where child care access has led to more women working outside the home or for someone else. However, women in remote rural places with accessible child care can use it to dedicate time to starting and growing their businesses and becoming their own bosses."

Rural counties have consistently reported challenging economic conditions, with lower labor force participation compared to their urban counterparts. A strategy to improve economic resilience in those communities is to stimulate entrepreneurship and self-employment among community members. However, the researchers say that with fewer resources than larger counties, rural leaders may need to take a holistic approach to business development and examine how factors at the community level impact their "entrepreneurial ecosystem."

They found that rural leaders who want to expand entrepreneurship opportunities for local women may consider investing in greater financial access, affordable child care, educational opportunities and community connections.

Stephens, Li and Entsminger are now using these findings support initiatives that help women kickstart their careers as business owners.

The study is part of a larger effort by the researchers to support rural areas by facilitating the understanding about what leads to entrepreneurial success among those who have traditionally had lower rates of self-employment.

"Part of this project involves a training program partially led by Daniel Eades from WVU Extension that will provide our research findings to those who are working in rural entrepreneurial ecosystem development," Stephens said.

"We hope our findings will help create more inclusive entrepreneurial support systems to help rural women start their own businesses."

-WVU-

rb/6/9/26

MEDIA CONTACT: Rachel Brosky
Media Manager
WVU Strategic Communications and Marketing
304-293-3990; [email protected]

Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.