Do Gender Stereotypes Influence Entrepreneurship Intention? Evidence from Indonesia

Gender inequality is still happening in the field of entrepreneurship because of gender stereotype where successful women is housewives. The Government of Indonesia has supported the existence of development facilities through entrepreneurship training program. The proposed framework is built on Theory of Planned Behavior combined with gender stereotype as antecedent variable. The samples of 200 students are selected by random-sampling method and analysed by structural equation modelling. The finding shows gender stereotypes effect on entrepreneurship intention that is mediated by perceived behavioral control. Gender stereotypes also affect subjective norms. This study confirms Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) that attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm have posit ive influence on individual’s intention. This study also contributes to evaluate the training program to ensure that women and men have equal opportunities to develop skills and knowledge, so that every individual feels confident in becoming an entrepreneur. Additionally, creating a supportive and inclusive training environment that actively addresses and mitigates gender stereotypes can enhance participants' confidence and entrepreneurial aspirations .


Introduction
Gender stereotypes are interesting to be researched because most of previous studies claim that gender has played a major role in gauging the intention of choosing a career (Akter et al., 2024;Verheul et al., 2005).The empirical study explained the world economy can increase up to USD 5 trillion if the gap of gender in entrepreneurship can be overcome (Unnikrishnan & Blair, 2021).Gender inequality is still happening in the field of entrepreneurship (Grzelec, 2024;Meliou & Ozbilgin, 2023;Zhu, 2024).Dao et al (2021) explained more details about gender stereotypes.There were different influences on entrepreneurship intention where male students have higher entrepreneurship intention than female students in Vietnam.This happened because the understanding of Confucianism.This understanding assumed that housewives are successful women.Housewives are not strong to be an entrepreneur.Vietnam is a country with the concept of a planned and centralized economy so that private economic activities are considered illegal (Nam & Tram, 2021).Government of Indonesia (2022) has targeted an entrepreneurship ratio to the population of 3.95% by 2024. However, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2023) found that entrepreneurship activity to start business has decrease based on adult individuals in Indonesia.It is 3.47% of population as entrepreneurs.(Hutasuhut & Aditia, 2021).The percentage remains low when compared to other countries in Southeast Asia.Singapore has 8.6% of its population as entrepreneurs, Thailand has 4.26%, and Malaysia has 4.74% (Hutasuhut & Aditia, 2021).Almodóvar-González et al (2020) explained that the requirement to become a developed country is to have a percentage of the number of entrepreneurs to the population of 6%.Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) mainly focused on people intention to do certain behavior (Ajzen, 1991;Feola et al., 2019;Paranata et al., 2023).Previous entrepreneurship research also used the concept of intention which is an initial stage to encourage individual's behavior (Ajzen, 2002(Ajzen, , 2005;;Vivekananth et al., 2023).This study is expected to contribute a new study model and evaluate the impact of gender stereotypes effect on entrepreneurship intention.

Literature Review Theory of Planned Behaviour
TPB developed a conceptual framework for comprehending human behavior (Ajzen, 2002).Several studies have extended TPB to different contexts.TPB argued that individual's intention will be determined by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (Ajzen, 1991).TPB is used as a grand theory for understanding entrepreneurship intention that will be combining with gender stereotype as antecedent variable.

Gender Stereotype
Gender is a sex difference that affects values and behaviors etymologically (Echols & Shadily, 2005).Terminologically, gender defined as men and women expectations (Lips, 1993).Gender can be seen the distinction between men and women from socio-cultural constructions that can be used to explain something (Golda & Stella, 2022).Gender stereotype is derived from gender scheme theory that provides a picture of appropriate abilities, behaviors, and situations for both men and women (Rubini & Antonelli, 1992).Gender stereotypes are perspective beliefs (role stereotype) about gender characteristics and differences (Brown & Gladstone, 2012).Gender stereotype explained that gender is related to gender roles (Berkery & Ryan, 2024).According to Fiske (2000), gender stereotypes represent shared beliefs about characteristics and attributes related to gender.These characteristics and attributes are associated with the attitudes of men and women.Gender stereotypes are society's belief in how men and women behave (Myers, 2012).It relates to individual beliefs about norms, attitudes, and behaviors that men and women should consistently (Prentice & Carranza, 2002).Based on research from Brown & Gladstone (2012), Kerr and Holden's Gender Role Beliefs Scale (GRBS) is one of the first concise measurements psychometrically to measure gender stereotypes.Thus, it can be hypothesized that H1: There is a relationship between gender stereotypes (GS) and attitude towards behavior (ATE).

H2:
There is a relationship between gender stereotypes (GS) and perceived behavioral control (PBC).H3: There is a relationship between gender stereotypes (GS) and subjective norms (ES).

Attitude Towards Entrepreneurship
Attitude is the individual behavior to maintain their values, both positive and negative (Dao et al., 2021).Ajzen (1991) explained that attitude represents an individual's awareness of behavioral beliefs and result evaluations.In addition, behaviors that give an unfavorable attitude will get a negative result.Attitude reflects an individual's feelings about excitement and plan to have a positive behavior (Ajzen, 1987).Opportunities will foster attitude towards entrepreneurship (Krueger et al., 2000).Preference and desire to have a business can be recognized by attitude towards entrepreneurship (Tella & Issa, 2013).The personal attitude influences individual's intention to pursue entrepreneurial career (Maes et al., 2014).Attitude towards entrepreneurship assesses the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a career as entrepreneur compared to professional worker (Maresch et al., 2016).Thus, it proposes hypothesis that: H4: There is a relationship between attitude towards entrepreneurship (ATE) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).H4a: There is a mediation role of attitude towards entrepreneurship (ATE) on the relationship between educational support (ES) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).

Perceived Behavioral Control
An individual's perception of the easy or difficulty to act is defined as perceived behavioral control.(Ajzen, 2002).According to Dao et al (2021), perceived behavioral control is not only feelings about ability, but also perceptions about the ability to control behavior.Amofah & Saladrigues (2022) explained that the process of launching a new business is caused by predictive ability because it represents the ability to arrange the behavior.Building a new business will be encouraged by someone's desire and determination (Krueger et al., 2000).Thus, it proposes hypothesis that: H5: There is a relationship between perceived behavioral control (PBC) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).H5a: There is a mediation role of perceived behavioral control (PBC) on the relationship between educational support (ES) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).

Subjective Norms
Subjective norms are an action which is influenced by social pressures (Ajzen, 1991).Autio et al. (2001), subjective norms refer to the recognition of initiatives, opportunities, and actions.Subjective norms also refer to the opinions or beliefs that influenced decision to do or not to do by closest persons (Dao et al., 2021).The influence will effect on entrepreneurship intention or carry out entrepreneurship activities (Armitage & Conner, 2001).However, subjective norms did not influence to entrepreneurship intention in Vietnam (Dao et al., 2021).This happens due to differences in students' characteristics who want to build a new business, such strong personality and independence in decision making.Most individuals can be encouraged or prevented to entrepreneurship depending on how societal norm is measured (Aliedan et al., 2022).Thus, it can be hypothesized that: H6: There is a relationship between subjective norms (SN) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).H6a: There is a mediation role of subjective norms (SN) on the relationship between educational support (ES) and entrepreneurship intention (EI).

Entrepreneurship Intention
The process of seeking knowledge is defined as the way to achieve entrepreneurship intention (Dao et al., 2021).This can be decisive in starting and operating a business.If someone is not interested in entrepreneurship, everything related to business processes will feel heavier than those involved in entrepreneurship (Esfandiar et al., 2017).Kusumojanto et al (2020) represents entrepreneurship intention as a planned action to carry out entrepreneurship behavior with a strong commitment to precede it.Krueger (1993) also explained that entrepreneurship intention reflects the commitment to build a new business which is the major issue of the entrepreneurship.The presence of entrepreneurship intention can predict the individual who will become an entrepreneur (Choo & Wong, 2006).So, the research framework in this study can be seen in Figure 1.

METHODOLOGY Sample and Data Collection
The sample in this study is students who participate entrepreneurship training program 2023 from several universities in Indonesia.The participants are selected by the random sampling method.The number of samples for SEM (Structural Equation Model) approach is five to ten times estimated parameters, i.e. indicators (Hair et al., 2010).This study has 21 indicators that affect 5 variables, so the number of samples is between (21 indicators x 5) 105 participants and (21 indicators x 10) 210 participants.The data is collected online with a self-administered approach.

Measurement Scale
The measurement scale contains students' identity questions, including gender, family background, allowance per month, personal experience, and entrepreneurial motivation.The core part contains questions about indicators that affect variables.The variables will be measured by the scale of Likert which shows 1 "strongly disagree" to 5 "strongly agree".The last part contains suggestions from students.

Data Analysis Approach
The pilot test was conducted on 35 participants to identify unclear question items and find out the length of time needed to fill out the questionnaire.The pilot test results showed no The construct reliability test uses the value of loading factor, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted.The construct validity test assess the degree of shared variance between the model's latent variables (Fornell & Larcker, 1994).Third, SEM consists of a model fit and hypothesis test.

Data Analysis and Discussion Demographic Profile
This study has 200 samples collected from November 20 to December 11th, 2023, through google form.The results of the data collection showed that samples were dominated by women as many as 67%, family backgrounds were not entrepreneurship as many as 59%, entrepreneurial motivation came from his or her self as many as 85%, the number of allowance per month less than IDR 1,000,0000 as many as 70%, and students without experience as many as 57%, as well as academic major from business and economics as many as 48%.

Descriptive Analysis
Table 2 shows mean ranged from 4.47 to 4.51, while standard deviation ranged from 0.660 to 1.340.In addition, the results of skewness and kurtosis values exceed -2 ≤ skewness ≤ 2 and -7 ≤ kurtosis ≤ 7, so the data of this study is indicated normal distribution (Curran et al., 1996).

Construct Reliability Test
Table 3 shows the result of Cronbach's Alpha and Composite Reliability ≥ 0.6, as well as Average Variance Extracted (AVE) ≥ 0.5.In addition, the result of loading factor for 200 samples ≥ 0.40.Thus, the construct of this study is reliable (Hair et al., 2010;Henseler et al., 2009).

Construct Validity Test
The construct validity requirement is that the AVE square root exceeds the correlation coefficient of the construct (Zait & Bertea, 2011).The educational support had an AVE square root value of 0.793, as did the attitude toward entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and entrepreneurship intention.The AVE square root yielded a value greater than the Pearson correlation coefficient.As a result, we can conclude that the construct used in this study is valid.

Assessment of Structural Model
Model fit is based on goodness of fit, which includes an RMSEA value of 0.031, a GFI value of 0.793, an AGFI value of 0.731, and a CMIN/DF value of 1.969.The result of model fit is greater than the goodness of fit cut-off value where RMSEA ≤ 0.08, GFI ≥ 0.7, AGFI ≥ 0.6, and CMIN/DF ≤ 2.0 (Byrne, 2010).As a result, the model in this study is classified as a good fit, which eliminates the need for model specifications.

Discussion
Gender stereotypes influence subjective norms.Role differences between men and women in running a business can increase the perceived social pressure received by individuals.Gender stereotypes also affect entrepreneurship intention mediated by perceived behavioral control.The existence of individual's perceptions related to easy or difficult in running a business can increase role differences between men and women so that it affects a person's intention to build a new business.This finding is in line with Dao et al (2021), gender stereotypes affect entrepreneurship intention.Male students have higher entrepreneurship intention compared to female students because of a perception of role differences.This understanding assumes that housewives are successful women.Moreover, housewives are considered to have dedication and are not strong entrepreneurial women.The study of Adom & Anambane (2020) found culture serves as a "driver" of women's entrepreneurial motivation and produces more female entrepreneurs who are driven by necessity rather than opportunity.Gender stereotypes have become a barrier to female entrepreneurship in some women-owned companies and made female entrepreneurs hesitant to start large, profitable businesses in "unknown sectors." Ngamsiriudom et al (2022) suggested that teaching relevant subjects needs innovative and efficient learning approaches in term of a different influence of gender on student performance.The think entrepreneur (Think Male Paradigm) also suggests that there needs to be greater awareness of gender stereotypes (Laguía et al., 2019).This finding refutes Gupta & Bhawe (2007), gender stereotypes do not affect entrepreneurship intention in the United States.Democratic countries provide equal opportunities to women and men for getting better careers.The finding shows that individual's attitude towards the advantages and disadvantages of entrepreneurship (attitude towards entrepreneurship), individual perceptions related to easy or difficulty in running a business (perceived behavioral control), and perceived social pressure received by individuals (subjective norm) can affect a person's intention to start a business (entrepreneurship intention).The finding is related to the concept of the TPB (Ajzen, 1991;Aliedan et al., 2022;Esfandiar et al., 2017).Entrepreneurship intention can be the basis for predicting someone to become an entrepreneur (Choo & Wong, 2006;Kusumojanto et al., 2020).

Conclusion and Future Agenda
This study explores TPB in entrepreneurship training program with gender stereotypes as antecedent variable.The study finds gender stereotypes affect subjective norm, as well as entrepreneurship intention that is mediated by perceived behavioral control.However, this study confirms the concept of TPB where attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm affect entrepreneurship intention.This study contributes to evaluate the training program to ensure that women and men have equal opportunities to develop skills and knowledge, so that every individual feels confident in becoming an entrepreneur.Additionally, creating a supportive and inclusive training environment that actively addresses and mitigates gender stereotypes can enhance participants' confidence and entrepreneurial aspirations.This study has limitation and suggestion for further research.The data collected was only one entrepreneurship training program.Subsequent research can compare various entrepreneurship training programs so that wider results are obtained.In addition, there is a possibility of response bias caused by filling all question items on the questionnaire positively.Longitudinal study will be important to monitor the possibility of behavioral changes.Mixed methods also can be used, between quantitative approach using questionnaires and qualitative approach using depth-interviews or focused-group discussions.Thus, the possibility of response bias can be minimized.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Research Framework Source: Created by Authors (2024) Figure 2 depicts the results of model fit testing.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The Result of Model Fit Test Source: created by Authors (2024)

Table 2
The Result of Descriptive Analysis

Table 5
The Result of Hypothesis Test -Direct Path