Breaking Barriers: The Enabling Power of Role Models for Female Founders

Abstract

Despite growing public and policy interest in female entrepreneurship, women remain significantly underrepresented among startup founders. This disparity is not only driven by structural constraints but also by deeper cultural and psychological dynamics that shape entrepreneurial pathways. While the literature has increasingly focused on these barriers women face, much less is known about how specific enablers, particularly role models, help women navigate and overcome them. Thus, this thesis explores the effect of role models as key enablers for women in overcoming perceived barriers to founding a business. Building on a qualitative research design, it draws on semi-structured interviews with female founders and aspiring entrepreneurs in Germany. The conceptual framework, developed based on the literature and refined through interview insights, guides the analysis of core themes, such as different barriers, enabling factors, and role model functions and types, while also allowing patterns such as, shared values, and family support to emerge from the data inductively. The methodological approach combines abductive reasoning with a grounded-theory-inspired logic, enabling theoretical guidance and openness to emergent insights. The findings reveal that role models act as overarching enablers by simultaneously addressing multiple types of barriers - structural, societal, and individual. Their impact is most substantial when they are female, emotionally accessible, situated within a relatable context, and resonate with the entrepreneur’s lived experience. Unlike many other enablers that depend on privileged access or resources, role models can provide widely accessible and low-threshold forms of entrepreneurial support. This highlights their unique capacity to foster confidence, expand perceived possibilities, and challenge dominant narratives of who can become an entrepreneur. At the same time, the study critically reflects on its limitations, including overidealization or performative gender expectations, that may undermine its empowering potential. By bridging the fields of gender, entrepreneurship, and social learning, this thesis offers a nuanced interdisciplinary contribution to understanding role models as a mechanism for supporting women in overcoming perceived barriers in entrepreneurship.