Examining entrepreneurial attributes of Latin American female university students

The phenomenon of women engaging in entrepreneurship is expanding and becoming acknowledged as a valuable resource that must be institutionally and socially supported. Through entrepreneurship education, female students, as potential entrepreneurs, can develop and strengthen those skills and behaviours identified as characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. This paper explores four attributes associated with entrepreneurship (creativity, problem management, risk management, and self-confidence) of 1838 undergraduate students from 11 universities in Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Uruguay) and one in Spain, used as a control group. By comparing the results for the male and female student population, self-confidence appears as an attribute that is present at the same level in both groups; statistically significant differences were reported for the other three attributes (creativity, problem management, and risk management). Entrepreneurship programmes can utilise such information to strengthen in female students those attributes for successful engagement in entrepreneurial activity.