Qasim, QursumCirera, Xavier2016-01-142016-01-142014-09https://hdl.handle.net/10986/23654In recent years, support programs for women entrepreneurs have gained traction and prominence as a means to create jobs and boost productivity at the national and regional levels. However, disparities in initial resource endowments of male and female-led firms, sector sorting into low productivity activities, social norms, and institutional arrangements, constrain the growth of female-led enterprises. This note reviews the outcomes of programs supporting female growth entrepreneurs and draws lessons from available evidence to inform the design of more effective programs. The review shows that most programs are primarily geared toward microenterprises, making it difficult to draw conclusions about program design for growth-oriented entrepreneurs, but some early findings point the way forward. Management practices appear to improve as a result of business education, but there is little robust evidence to prove that support programs lead to significant improvements in business performance outcomes. Furthermore, in programs with both male and female participants, firm performance improves in some cases for male-led firms only, not for female-led firms. The note concludes by suggesting the need for more experimentation in the design and delivery of services and a new focus on strengthening the engendering of support programs to more specifically address gender-specific constraints such as social norms, entrepreneurial preferences, and institutional arrangements, changing public discourse, and paying more attention to factors that induce female entrepreneurs to diversify into higher value-added activities. Offering mentoring, networking, and other consulting services, in addition to education on basic business practices and strengthening critical areas such as gender-specific content, can potentially increase the effectiveness of these programs.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOACCESS TO CAPITALACCESS TO CREDITACCESS TO FINANCEACCESS TO INFORMATIONACCESS TO MARKETSACCESS TO NETWORKSAPPLICATION PROCESSBANK ACCOUNTSBORROWINGBUSINESS ASSOCIATIONSBUSINESS EDUCATIONBUSINESS ENVIRONMENTBUSINESS EXPERIENCEBUSINESS MANAGEMENTBUSINESS NETWORKSBUSINESS OWNERSHIPBUSINESS PLANBUSINESS TRAININGBUSINESSWOMENCAPITAL RETURNSCAPITAL STOCKCHAMBERS OF COMMERCECHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS OWNERSCOMPANYCONSULTING SERVICESCULTURAL NORMSCUSTOMER SERVICEDEVELOPMENT BANKDIVERSIFICATIONECONOMIC ACTIVITYECONOMIC EMPOWERMENTECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIESEDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIESEMPLOYMENT GROWTHEMPOWERMENTENDOWMENTSENTERPRISE GROWTHENTREPRENEURENTREPRENEURIAL ABILITYENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIORENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCEENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESSENTREPRENEURSHIP SUPPORTENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAININGENVIRONMENT FOR WOMENEQUAL ACCESSEXPANSIONFAMILY BUSINESSFAMILY BUSINESSESFAMILY LAWFATHERFEMALEFEMALE BUSINESSFEMALE BUSINESSESFEMALE EMPLOYMENTFEMALE ENTERPRISEFEMALE ENTERPRISESFEMALE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIESFEMALE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITYFEMALE ENTREPRENEURSFEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIPFEMALE PARTICIPANTSFEMALE WORKERSFINANCIAL CAPITALFINANCIAL LITERACYFINANCIAL SKILLSFIRM SIZEFIRMSGENDERGENDER DIFFERENCESGENDER DIFFERENTIALGENDER DISTRIBUTIONGENDER GAPGENDER ROLESGENDER SPECIFICGREATER ACCESSGROUP LENDINGGROWTH OPPORTUNITIESGROWTH PLANSHOUSEHOLDSHUMAN CAPITALHUMAN RESOURCESHUSBANDINSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTSINSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKJOB CREATIONKEY CHALLENGESLABOR MARKETLABOR MARKETSLACK OF INFORMATIONLIMITED ACCESSMARKET INFORMATIONMEDIUM ENTERPRISESMICROENTERPRISESMICROFINANCEMICROFINANCE CLIENTSPERCEPTIONS OF WOMENPRODUCTIVE ENTERPRISESPRODUCTIVITYPROFESSIONAL NETWORKSPROFITABILITYPROVISION OF FINANCERATES OF RETURNREAL ESTATESALES GROWTHSELF-EMPLOYMENTSMALL BUSINESSSMALL FIRMSMALL FIRMSSMALL-SCALE ENTREPRENEURSSMESOCIAL ASSISTANCESOCIAL WORKSTARTUP CAPITALSUCCESSFUL WOMENSUPPLY CHAINSTECHNICAL ASSISTANCETECHNICAL TRAININGTHEORY OF THE FIRMUNCTADVENTURE CAPITALVENTURE CAPITAL FUNDSWOMANWOMEN BUSINESS OWNERSWOMEN ENTREPRENEURSWOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIPWOMEN OWNERYOUTHBriefWorld Bank10.1596/23654