Marriage,Children, and Self-Employment Earnings: An Analysis of Self-Employed Women in the US

This research focuses on the relationship between marriage and women’s self-employment earnings in the US. The basic proposition is that marriage poses an additional constraint on women entrepreneurs. By acknowledging the overlap of gender, family, and business we are able to observe the relationship between the institution of marriage and women’s self-employment earnings. This research used the Integrated Public Use Microdata System’s 2009 American Community Survey. Marriage and children had a negative association with women’s self-employment earnings.