We experimentally investigate gender- and occupation-specific differences in market entry behavior and test whether female entrepreneurs are more willing to take strategic risk and engage in competition than other women. To facilitate strategic thinking, we induce asymmetric gain and loss experiences. We find that female entrepreneurs react to own gains and losses like other women and to opponents’ experiences like male entrepreneurs. Overall entry of female entrepreneurs is much lower than that of male entrepreneurs and does not differ from other women indicating that also female entrepreneurs dislike strategic competition. Risk aversion does not to account for this finding.