Conceptualizing gender in entrepreneurial finance: Past trends, current developments and future opportunities

This chapter will illustrate how gender is intertwined in the entrepreneurial activities of raising and awarding entrepreneurial finance with a particular focus on the areas of angel and venture capital financing. The aim here is to provide a meaningful gender perspective to challenge normative thinking and gendered assumptions that still permeate much of the entrepreneurial finance literature. The chapter begins by discussing the influence of gender on broader entrepreneurial behaviour before focusing in on the specific domain of entrepreneurial finance. A mini-review of the literature is then presented spanning two time periods - 2000-2015 and 2016 to date - to illustrate how the field has developed, albeit slowly in its conceptualization of gender. We then turn our attention to the future opportunities for research and advance five different areas or 'roadslesstraveled' for scholars to continue on.