A number of researchers sought to test the notion that
discrimination is one factor that might have made womenowned
businesses less successful in the past. Cromie and
Hayes (1988) argued that self-employment enables women
to fight discrimination and to increase their chance of success.
Others claimed that systematic discrimination was a
source of lower performance of female-owned businesses
(Aldrich 1989). Noting that size is a predictor of success,
one alternative explanation for relatively higher failure
rates of businesses owned by women is that women operate
businesses that are relatively smaller in size compared with
businesses owned by men ( Loscocco et al. 1991).