Why Are Women the Majority of Freelancers?

GigaOm's Women make up the majority of online freelancers, study says covers research from Zinnov showing that women comprise 55% of the workers on online talent sites like Elance and oDesk.  

This is consistent with our research on U.S. independent workers.  We found that women comprise 53% of this group.  

I haven't been able to get a copy of the Zinnov study, but both the GigaOm article and an article on the study in Venture Beat quote Zinnov as saying work/life balance is the key reason women are choosing to freelance online and why they outnumber men.

We're not so sure.

Work/life balance clearly is an important reason women become and stay independent workers.  This is especially true for women with children.  

But as the GigaOm article points out and our research confirms, men also care about work/life balance. We only saw minor statistical differences between men and women on this in our research on this topic.

Another explanation why female freelancers outnumber men may be occupations.

As you can see from the chart below (from the U.S. BLS), women comprise more than 50% of employment in the services industries and less than 50% in the production industries.  

     
While we haven't done analytical work on this, it's highly likely there are more freelancers in services industries than production industries.  This would lead to more female freelancers than men.  

Education is another potential cause.  Our research shows independent workers are better educated than the overall workforce. On average women, and especially younger women, are better educated than men.  For example, 57% of today's U.S. college students are female.  

This education gap has favored women for several decades and is a key driver behind one of my favorite trends - It's a She-conomy.  It's reasonable to conclude that the education gap is also, at least in part, leading to more female freelancers.

Of course the real answer is a combination of factors, including work/life balance issues.  

But I think putting it all on work/life balance is a mistake that plays to our stereotypes while understating the growing role women are playing across the economy and society.  

Comments

[small business crm]

Absolutely true, women wants work and life balance. Women that are married and has children mostly likely want to be freelancers because they want to look for their children and see how they grow which you can't do when you work at the office.

[head_exposed]

Women today are the pillars of economy. Whatever country you go to, women rule the businesses and have more edge in what they do. This is not a sexist thing but a fact that the world's economy and finances are being dominated by women and they are doing a great job! Women just so happen to bloom mush faster than men these days.