An entrepreneurship education and peer mentoring program for women in STEM: mentors’ experiences and perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intent

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in STEM and in entrepreneurship but are rare in STEM entrepreneurship. A gender-sensitive entrepreneurship education and peer mentoring program for women engineering and computer science students was developed to provide classroom instruction, experiential learning, and support to a small group of students. This paper reports on the experiences of student peer mentors in the program, in terms of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial intent (EI). Qualitative methods were adopted for this study. Student mentors were interviewed about their experiences and reported increased perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, a greater awareness of diversity and gender issues, and a changed perspective on problem solving and life in general. Student mentors reported a distinct interest in becoming an entrepreneur at "some time" in their lives, although not necessarily immediately upon graduation.

Effect of Mentorship on the Early Entrepreneurial Journey of University Students

“…Post-secondary institutions are now aware that a higher chance of producing more entrepreneurs in the future relies on developing entrepreneurial skills that a student can achieve during their university program. According to GEM's 2018/2019 Global Report, recent university graduates fall within the most popular age group of entrepreneurs (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35) in almost every geographic region [9]. This is consistent with findings by Blanchflower et al [10], which argue that the willingness to be self-employed is more common among the younger generation and decreases with age.…”

“…This lack of representation gets exacerbated in STEM entrepreneurship. Elliot et al [33] studied gender-sensitive entrepreneurship education and peer mentoring programs for women engineering and computer science students de-veloped at a Canadian university to provide classroom instruction, experiential learning, and support to a small group of students. One of the significant findings of their study is that a gender-sensitive mentorship program can develop entrepreneurial identity among women engineers.…”

Covid-19 and entrepreneurship education: Implications for advancing research and practice

“…Addressing world problems is part of entrepreneurship curricula as it provides a way for students to help solve societal issues through focusing on their intention to become entrepreneurial ( Beynon, Jones and Pickernell, 2016 ). An entrepreneurial intent is defined as “a clear and conscious decision to start a new venture” ( Elliott et al, 2020 ). This means students can apply entrepreneurship principles that empower them to take strategic action.…”

Damsels in distress: Discourses of entrepreneurship in management textbooks

“…Textbooks used in these introductory courses are also introductory in nature; often each chapter is dedicated to a business function (e.g., management, marketing, finance). Second, previous work (Elliott et al, 2020) has surfaced the disturbing trend of women “opting out” of entrepreneurship as a focus of study in their business education. By choosing introductory business courses we are attempting to capture the moment just prior to when women exclude themselves, the earliest point of exposure to entrepreneurship in their university career.…”