The study's main objective is to explore the association of the internal barriers female entrepreneurs may experience when pursuing funding opportunities and the consequences of these barriers in the Swedish market. Statistics indicate that women create more profitable businesses, yet only 1% of all venture capital is distributed to female-only founding teams. Additionally, women continuously encounter challenges in pursuing external funding, which arise from internal barriers and societal and external perceptions. The research is grounded on a thorough literature review, the empirical findings derived from a qualitative data analysis through semi-structured interviews with eight female entrepreneurs and one “industry professional”. 

The frame of reference assisted in analyzing the empirical findings by drawing parallels between gender role theory and self-efficacy theory. The findings unveiled three prominent internal barriers to apprehension when seeking external funding: Civil status, Fear of failure, and Gender bias. The study uncovers that internal barriers substantially impede female entrepreneurs’ access to funding, causing apprehension to seek external funding and a tendency to utilize slow-paced organic growth strategies. Therefore, scalability is hampered, and gender disparities remain in the Swedish funding landscape. The researchers suggest governmental implementations of networks aimed at supporting and educating female entrepreneurs, as well as standardizing measures of financial institutions to improve the funding landscape.