Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis is to offer a number of illustrations of Russian female entrepreneurs in order to identify potential motivational factors that make Russian women launch their own business start-ups. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative research method is applied within the master thesis based on information received from secondary (case studies) and primary (semi-structured interviews) data collection methods. The actor view and combination of directed and summative approaches of the qualitative content analysis update the information gathered within the theoretical studies of peer-reviewed articles on female entrepreneurship in general and particularly in Russia. Findings – Female entrepreneurs are not a homogenous group. Motivational factors can be divided in two groups: both applicable to male and female entrepreneurship; exclusively female motivations. “The glass ceiling effect” is a common problem that pushes women into self-employment. “Internal-stable reasons” encourage women entrepreneurship as an opportunity to achieve work-life balance and be one’s own boss. The desire of social contribution is a driver of female entrepreneurship, too. Marriage and birth of children make females think about starting their own businesses as well. Female entrepreneurship discrimination in Russia still exists up to now, in particular: sexism and dalliance. The principle motivational factors for women entrepreneurs in Russia are: wholesome family relationship and family support. One can behold a developing positive trend inside the boundaries of various discrimination problems that used to frustrate the majority of females determined to embark on entrepreneurial activity. Still the majority of females who are determined to launch entrepreneurial projects consider marriage to be a significant and useful social institution. Research limitations/implications – The research studies on women entrepreneurship in the world are at the infancy stage, much less in Russia. Thus, the number of articles on female entrepreneurship is willing to be broaden. The only conduction of interviews in terms of empirical analysis is not enough and could be supported by surveys and focus groups in the future. The authors are limited in time and resources for the analysis of such a vast topic as well as restrictions in the regional context (central regions – Moscow) disallow to apply findings in relation to the whole Russian Federation. Practical implications – The findings of the master thesis could be used by researchers to replicate the study of motivational factors in a multiregional sample and to know whether the results are similar in all regions of Russia; and policy makers to motivate women to become entrepreneurs as it is a source of new jobs and allows women to be active participants in the country’s economy.

Female entrepreneurship, as a subject of the academic research, has gained a lot of popularity in the recent years. A considerable amount of attention to this field has been caused by the growing recognition that female entrepreneurship has a profound impact on the economic development. Nevertheless, the potential of female entrepreneurs is far from being fully realized in many economies. Having chosen Russia as the area of investigation, the researchers intend to examine female entrepreneurship and discover specific obstacles contained in it. Therefore, this study aims at discovering preventing factors that dissuade Russian women from stepping into entrepreneurship. For the purposes of this work,qualitative research approach is followed, with the actors view and qualitative content analysis being applied. Case studies and interviews are used to collect data about female entrepreneurs' opinion on the general state of female entrepreneurship in Russia, their attitudes toward it and assumptions about existing barriers.               The results of the research demonstrate that distinguished and describedbarriers of female entrepreneurship hold different level of influence. The researchers also emphasize that actual barriers do not fully comply with those that are generally perceived by Russians and broadly described by scholars. From the study it is revealed that the most influential barriers are the following: managerial incompetence together with financial illiteracy, mistrust to the government and the myth of female entrepreneurship, with corruption and social prejudices being of less significance. The conclusion can also be drawn that the revealed myth of female entrepreneurship influences women's attitude towards entrepreneurship in Russia to much more extent than other obstacles. Some recommendations regarding possible alterations to current state of female entrepreneurship in Russia as well as suggestions to future female entrepreneurs, such as improving entrepreneurial environment, educational toolkit for female entrepreneurs, the importance of telling inspirational stories, are presented.