Economic Catalyst | Hard RC Passage Practice

Is there a disconnect between entrepreneurial merit and success when gender enters the equation? Are traditional economic growth strategies missing a major opportunity? Explore the contradictions between investor behavior and actual business performance in these challenging analytical passages that require careful reading between the lines.

Read these hard reading passage(s) from business and economy and answer the question(s) that follows. You can choose the GMAT style Reading Passage and the question that follows or the GRE RC Passage variant and answer the GRE-style question. Even better, you could try both.

GMAT Passage (Hard difficulty, 209 words)

Economic theory has traditionally emphasized conventional stimuli such as foreign direct investment and tax reductions as growth drivers. However, contemporary research challenges this paradigm, proposing that internal social reforms—particularly gender equity—may serve as an even more powerful and sustainable economic catalyst. The Westfield Economic Institute’s analysis suggests advancing women’s equality could add $14 trillion to the global economy by 2027, with optimal scenarios projecting up to $30 trillion. This theoretical framework posits that addressing gender disparities represents an untapped resource for economic expansion.

Evidence supporting this theory manifests across multiple domains. Labor market data reveals persistent wage disparities, with women earning approximately 58 cents for every dollar paid to male counterparts according to International Economic Council analyses. Blackwood University’s experimental studies demonstrate investor bias; when identical business pitches were presented with only the presenter’s voice altered, seventy percent of investors selected male-voiced presentations. Paradoxically, empirical data contradicts these biases, as female-founded startups outperform all-male ventures according to the Global Entrepreneurship Database’s tracking study. This contradiction suggests that structural biases, rather than performance differentials, impede women’s entrepreneurial participation and economic contributions.

Policy implications extend beyond traditional approaches focused on external investment. Instead, initiatives addressing gender-specific barriers to entrepreneurship may yield more substantial economic dividends than conventional growth strategies.

RC Question Type: Inference | Question Difficulty: Hard

Based on the passage, which of the following can most reasonably be inferred about the Blackwood University experimental study?

1. The perceived quality of the pitch content was less influential in investment decisions than the perceived gender of the presenter.
2. Female entrepreneurs would likely secure more investment funding if they modified their voices to sound masculine during presentations.
3. The study’s methodology isolated voice as a variable by controlling for all other aspects of the business pitch presentations.
4. Investors who selected male-voiced presentations were conscious of their gender bias when making investment decisions.
5. The disparity in selection rates between male and female voices would likely decrease if investors were provided with the business pitches’ performance projections.

GRE RC Practice Passage (Hard Difficulty, 174 words)

Can merit alone determine success in entrepreneurship? Increasingly, economic researchers say no—pointing to a system where structural barriers often eclipse individual capability. Recent analyses propose that structural barriers disproportionately affect women entrepreneurs despite demonstrated capabilities. The Cambridge Institute documented that women-led ventures receive merely 7% of available venture capital despite evidence from the Entrepreneurial Performance Index showing these businesses generate 10% higher returns on investment over five-year periods. This theoretical disconnect between performance and investment suggests systemic rather than meritocratic factors determine resource allocation.

Further supporting this theory, the Central Economic Forum’s longitudinal study found that women entrepreneurs face approximately 65% more questions about risk mitigation during funding presentations while receiving 40% fewer queries about growth potential than their male counterparts. Notably, when identical business proposals were submitted under gender-neutral conditions, funding approval rates equalized, indicating evaluation bias rather than quality differentials drive disparities. This evidence challenges conventional entrepreneurship theories that presume equal opportunity within competitive markets and suggests policy interventions addressing structural inequities may prove more economically beneficial than traditional market-based approaches.

Question Type: Primary Purpose | Question Difficulty: Medium

The primary purpose of the passage is to:

1. criticize traditional approaches to entrepreneurship that fail to account for gender disparities in funding opportunities
2. present evidence supporting the theory that systemic barriers rather than merit primarily affect women entrepreneurs’ access to resources
3. argue that policy interventions are necessary to address the unequal distribution of venture capital between male and female entrepreneurs
4. compare the effectiveness of women-led businesses to male-led ventures in generating returns on investment
5. analyze how gender-neutral conditions in business proposal evaluations can eliminate funding disparities