Entrepreneurship is linked to economic development and prosperity. However, female entrepreneurs face unique challenges, particularly concerning work-family conflicts, which can significantly influence their investment decisions. This study aims to determine the conflict levels experienced by female entrepreneurs in Turkey due to their business and family responsibilities, and how these responsibilities and conflicts shape their investment plans. The research questions are: 1) Do the responsibilities of female entrepreneurs in both business and family significantly contribute to the conflicts they experience? 2) Do these responsibilities significantly influence their investment decisions? 3) What is the relationship between their work-family conflict level and investment decisions? Rough set theory, a method for handling uncertainty and vagueness, is used for data analysis because real-life entrepreneurial situations are complex and cannot be easily modeled with two-valued logic.

The literature review traces the evolution of women's participation in the workforce, noting historical limitations and the rise of female entrepreneurship, especially in Turkey following the establishment of the Republic. It explores foundational questions in women's entrepreneurship research: (1) Are women and men equally likely to engage in entrepreneurship? (2) Do male and female entrepreneurs differ in financial resource acquisition? (3) Do they use different strategic, organizational, and managerial practices? (4) Do their firms perform equally well? The review finds that while men and women share similar motivations and values, they often differ in their business goals, personal characteristics, and preferred fields. Furthermore, existing literature highlights that working women, particularly due to societal expectations, experience higher levels of work-family conflict. This conflict is examined as work-family conflict (work interfering with family) and family-work conflict (family interfering with work). The review also explores prior research on investment decisions, emphasizing the impact of family responsibilities on investment choices made by female entrepreneurs. While some studies suggest women are less inclined toward high growth, others indicate that this might not be as significant for nascent entrepreneurs or be linked to the prioritization of family over business growth.

This study uses rough set theory to analyze data from 348 face-to-face interviews with female entrepreneurs in four economically developed Turkish provinces with lower gender inequality (Istanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, and Yalova). The methodology involved a two-stage process. In the first stage, the roles and responsibilities of female entrepreneurs at home and work were identified, and conflict levels (work-family and family-work) were measured using a five-point Likert scale, later reduced to three levels (low, medium, high) for rough set analysis. The characteristics considered included entrepreneurial time, partner's activity status, entrepreneurial intensity, marital status, age of the youngest child, and educational status. These characteristics were used to create granules (groups of entrepreneurs with similar characteristics). Lower and upper approximations and boundary sets were then calculated for work-family and family-work conflicts to determine the membership degree of each granule in the respective conflict levels. The accuracy of the approximation (αc) was also computed. In the second stage, the relationship between entrepreneurial and family roles and investment decisions was investigated. Investment decisions were categorized into four sub-dimensions: functional (new equipment), team-based (personnel training/recruitment), product and market (new product development and market entry), and combination (other investments). Rough set analysis, similar to the first stage, was conducted to determine the lower and upper approximations, boundary sets, and membership degrees for each investment decision category (low, medium, high). Finally, correlation analysis (Goodman and Kruskal's gamma coefficient and Kendall's tau-b) examined the relationship between conflict levels and each investment decision sub-dimension. Lambda coefficients were also calculated to assess potential causal relationships.

The study identified 226 granules, highlighting diversity among the female entrepreneurs. Work-family conflict was found to be higher than family-work conflict, with a significant portion of entrepreneurs experiencing low levels of both. The majority of female entrepreneurs exhibited a 'high' level of investment planning across all four investment decision categories, with functional investment decisions showing the highest rate (49%). Correlation analysis using Goodman and Kruskal's gamma coefficient and Kendall's tau-b revealed no significant correlation between conflict levels (work-family and family-work) and investment decisions. Similarly, lambda coefficients indicated no significant causal relationship between the variables. The membership degrees indicated that while the high level planning was most prominent in functional investment decisions, the distribution across low, medium, and high investment levels was relatively even for entrepreneurs experiencing low levels of conflict.

The findings indicate that the surveyed female entrepreneurs, primarily located in regions with relatively low gender inequality, experience low levels of work-family conflict. This contrasts with previous research that frequently highlights significant conflict for working women. The observed high levels of investment intentions suggest that these entrepreneurs prioritize their businesses and are actively seeking growth. The absence of a correlation between conflict levels and investment decisions implies that the level of work-family conflict does not directly impact their investment strategies. This suggests that those experiencing high conflict may have already exited entrepreneurship, leaving a sample biased toward entrepreneurs capable of managing or avoiding significant work-family conflict.

This study offers valuable insights into the work-family dynamics and investment decisions of Turkish female entrepreneurs, specifically in regions with low gender inequality. Rough set theory provided a novel approach to classifying entrepreneurs and examining the complex relationships between conflict and investment. Future research could investigate a broader geographical area in Turkey to account for regional differences and explore the investment strategies of entrepreneurs who experience high levels of conflict, and examine factors like access to microcredit and childcare facilities. Further studies on 'Mompreneurship' within the Turkish context might also prove insightful.

The study's focus on regions with low gender inequality limits the generalizability of the findings to other parts of Turkey where higher conflict levels might be observed. The cross-sectional nature of the study limits the ability to make causal inferences. The specific sample may also be skewed toward entrepreneurs successfully balancing work and family; those who are unable to do so may have exited entrepreneurship and are therefore absent from this study.