Labor laws that prevent women from moving up in the workplacemay actually encourage them to start more businesses. But thebusinesses they start are not as profitable as the businesses runby women in countries with more generous benefits geared towardshelping families deal with childcare.

That’s according to newly-released research by Sarah Thébaud, aprofessor of sociology at the University of California at SantaBarbara. In her report, Thébaud rejects the premise that family lawshould pit business advocates against big government liberals. Theinflexibility of the modern workplace deters half of the nation’spopulation from fully engaging in entrepreneurship, a trend thatshould make any free market enthusiast concerned, she argues.

“(W)omen are a vastly under-tapped resource when it comes togrowing a vibrant economy,” she writes. “For instance, in 2014,woman-owned firms in the United States employed only six percent ofthe workforce and created less than four percent of all businessrevenues — a figure that is about the same as it was in 1997.”