Impeding Factors of Women's Entrepreneurship in Korea: Debate on Inherence vs Ambiance

As the education level and economic participation of women have increased, women’s entrepreneurship has gained a much attention in Korea as well as worldwide. However,previous literatures have not sufficiently dealt with the underlying impediments that deter entrepreneurial activities of Korean women. Therefore, in this research, I intended to explore the various dimensions critically hampering women’s entrepreneurship in Korea. To this end, I reviewed existing articles and drew the most frequently referred and relevant to explain the barriers in Korean women’s entrepreneurship. As a result of a literature survey, I was able to simplify diverse factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship into two, namely inherence and ambience. I then subdivided these bifurcated contrasting views into two, again: trait-based difference from men and scholastic ability-based difference from men in the case of inherence and institutional regime surrounding businesses and national family support system in the case of ambience. Finally, I reached the following conclusion: ambience is more critical than inherence in women’s entrepreneurship in the Korean context. This implies that diverting from the previously gender-focused issues, we need to elaborate the various reasons in terms of relevant social constructs surrounding women for the facilitation of women’s entrepreneurship in Korea.