Research seminar | Breaking in or burning out? Entrepreneurial careers and the gender gap in mental health - 22 Apr 2026

Abstract: Why do entrepreneurial careers exact different psychological costs for women and men? We address this question by theorizing entrepreneurship as an intensely social and performative role in which legitimacy, competence, and authenticity are continuously scrutinized by external audiences. These conditions make entrepreneurship a revealing context for examining the consequences of gender role incongruity. Because entrepreneurial role expectations are strongly coded as agentic, they are less congruent with prevailing expectations surrounding women, increasing the likelihood that female founders experience both heightened role demands and diminished access to supportive resources. Drawing on role congruity theory and a job demands-resources perspective, we argue that this misalignment exposes women entrepreneurs to disproportionate emotional strain. We test these arguments using three decades of Danish population-register data and a staggered event-study design tracking mental health before and after entry into entrepreneurship. Comparing 5,700 female founders with 6,900 matched male founders, we find that entrepreneurial entry increases prescriptions for stress-related medication for both genders, but significantly more so for women. This gap widens in male-dominated industries and narrows when women have entrepreneurial close relatives. By linking gendered role expectations to clinically observable mental health outcomes, we extend research on gender and entrepreneurship beyond entry and performance to the hidden psychological costs of entrepreneurial careers.

About Pursey Heugens  

Pursey Heugens is Professor of Organization Theory at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. His research focuses on the strategy and governance of alternative organizational forms like state-owned enterprises, inclusive entrepreneurial ventures, family firms, and business groups, and on the ways in which formal and informal institutions shape their organizational choices. He has published in leading journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal,Journal of International Business Studies, and Organization Science. Pursey has held major research leadership roles at RSM and ERIM and has served as Associate Editor for journals like Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management, and Academy of Management Annals. He takes particular pride in his established record of PhD training and international placement.