What Do We Know about the Patterns and Determinants of Female Entrepreneurship across Countries?

In this article we provide an introduction to the papers in the special section of this edition of the European Journal of Development Research. We start by framing the challenges posed by female entrepreneurship to the research community, note some of the findings in the literature pertaining to the cross-national understanding of female entrepreneurship, and review the existing literature on the role and experience of female entrepreneurs in developing countries. Despite progress in understanding the motivations, constraints and issues that confront female entrepreneurs, there is still substantial scope for further research. We then discuss four papers that advance this research agenda.