Crowdfunding for women entrepreneurship: Opportunities, challenges, and the path forward

Abstract

Crowdfunding has emerged as a potentially transformative financing mechanism for women entrepreneurs, offering an alternative to traditional funding sources that have historically excluded or disadvantaged female-led ventures. This comprehensive review synthesizes current research on crowdfunding's role in women's entrepreneurship, examining opportunities, persistent barriers, and emerging strategies for success. Drawing from a systematic analysis of recent literature spanning reward-based, equity, and lending platforms,covering the 2012–2023 period, this article reveals a complex landscape where crowdfunding both democratizes access to capital and reproduces existing gender biases. While women demonstrate notable success on reward-based platforms like Kickstarter, equity crowdfunding presents mixed outcomes that vary significantly by context, platform design, and investor composition. Key findings indicate that success factors for women entrepreneurs include strategic signal management, leveraging third-party endorsements, building diverse networks, and understanding platform-specific dynamics. The analysis identifies critical research gaps and proposes future directions for both scholarship and platform design to better serve women entrepreneurs in the evolving crowdfunding ecosystem.