Skeptical of prevailing depictions and recommendations regarding the gender gap in entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), our aim is to raise and examine alternative interpretations and inferences. We question the common belief that women are under-confident with respect to entrepreneurship and whether this is a “problem” that needs fixing. The findings from two distinct datasets indicate, instead, that women are as likely as men to possess accurate entrepreneurial confidence, which is less likely than over-confidence to be associated with proclivities potentially detrimental to business venturing. Our analysis therefore calls for revised portrayals of—and suggestions for—the ESE of both women and men.

我们对关于创业自我效能感 (ESE) 中性别差距的普遍描述和建议持怀疑态度，我们的目标是提出和检验替代解释和推论。我们质疑女性对创业信心不足的普遍看法，以及这是否是一个需要解决的“问题”。相反，来自两个不同数据集的研究结果表明，女性与男性一样可能拥有准确的创业信心，这与过度自信相比，不太可能与可能不利于创业的倾向相关联。因此，我们的分析要求对女性和男性的 ESE 进行修改描述并提出建议。