Gender, poverty and entrepreneurship: A systematic literature review and future research agenda

Women represent the majority of the poor worldwide and entrepreneurship is widely argued to be critical for alleviating poverty conditions. However, research on this topic is dispersed and fragmented across various research domains and contexts. In this paper, we provide a broader perspective on the relationship between gender and poverty entrepreneurship. The purpose of this review is to acknowledge and critically discuss the variety of studies on gender and poverty entrepreneurship published over the last three decades. Using a systematic literature review process and an inductive categorization, we offer an overarching framework for organizing what we know about gendered entrepreneurial activity under poverty conditions including the relevant antecedents, mechanisms, outcomes and characteristics. In doing so, this article develops a roadmap of the current knowledge and provides suggestions to guide future research.