Evaluators’ masculine gender identity may drive gender biases in peer evaluation of business plans

• Masculine evaluators assess women’s business plans and their potential in entrepreneurship more critically. • Female evaluators in our sample described themselves as more masculine than male evaluators. • Hyper-masculine stereotypes about successful entrepreneurs may lead to self-selection of potential female entrepreneurs. • Caution is advised when recommending to increase the number of female evaluators. The paper investigates gender biases and differential treatment of women and men in the business start-up phase. A sample of 498 entrepreneurs from Slovakia participated in an online experiment and evaluated three fictitious business plans in terms of the applicants’ competence, likeability, and business ability. Evaluators also indicated the survival chances of each planned business, the amount they would be willing to invest in each of the start-ups, and selected the most promising applicant. The start-ups were positioned in three different sectors—cosmetics production, services provision, and software development—where men’s and women’s chances of success may be viewed differently. Following Goldberg’s paradigm, half of the evaluators received business plans presented as written by female and half by male applicants; otherwise the plans were identical. Although our results show that, in general, female applicants are assessed similarly to male applicants, masculine evaluators assess women’s business plans and their potential in entrepreneurship more critically. Finally, the study shows that caution is advised when recommending to increase the number of female evaluators of business plans at various stages of the evaluation process. If women who become involved in entrepreneurship are excessively masculine and masculinity is associated with a less favourable evaluation of potential female entrepreneurs, such policies could backfire against women, putting them in a more disadvantaged position.