The research comes from Nan Langowitz, of the Women's Center for Leadership at Babson College in Massachusetts, who co-authored the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2006 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship.

She said that in poorer countries, where women didn't have as many choices, they were more likely to start their own businesses.

Writing for the Babson Women's Business Blog, she said:

"Necessity is a bigger component of women's motivation toward entrepreneurship than it is for men and, in lower income countries where necessity is typically high, the gender gap for entrepreneurship nearly disappears."