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The Obama administration recognized the importance of expanding the role that women-owned businesses play in the national economy. Some of his initiatives include increasing access to capital, incentivizing small business growth and hiring, encouraging women owned business competition for government contracts, and enhancing long term survival of women owned businesses. Two primary pieces of legislation have bolstered the limited growth that the United States has seen in this field: The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 and the Women’s Equity in Contracting Act. Both of these seek to help businesses headed up by women win more government contracts. “Things like that really aim to put women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses at a competitive advantage,” says Jessica Milli, a senior research associate at the Institute of Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). “It restricts competition, which has really helped to boost revenues and help more businesses get into the industry.” But such policies can’t, and haven't, solved all the challenges inherent to being a female business owner. Women business owners still face a significant wage gap and continually have smaller amounts of start-up capital than their male peers.
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==Status Quo==
Overall, women-owned businesses account for slighly slightly less than 1/3 of all businesses in the United States, but at first glance the statistics portray a positive picture for the field's growth: the number of women-owned firms has grown 68 percent since 2007, compared to only 47 percent for all businesses. [http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/women-are-owning-more-and-more-small-businesses/390642/]. However, these women owned businesses are typically only run by the woman herself; the Kauffman Foundation reports that among employer firms, women-owned businesses account for only 16% of the total, and their shares of revenue and employees are in the single digits. [http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20reports%20and%20covers/2014/11/sources_of_economic_hope_womens_entrepreneurship.pdf]
Numbers aside, Americans hold a negative view of women in entrepreneurial leadership roles. According to data from a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, 43% of Americans believe that the U.S. is not prepared to hire women for top-tier executive positions. A relatively smaller, but still significant, number of Americans (23%) believe that women don’t have the time to hold an executive position, given their “family responsibilities”. [http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/09/where-can-female-entrepreneurs-find-the-most-success/406987/]
Though at first glance women-owned business growth seems striking, the numbers are deceptive in that their shares of revenue and employees are in single digits. Furthermore, women who do go into entrepreneurship face societal disapproval of their actions, with a plurality of Americans believing not only that the country is not prepared to hire women to executive positions, but also that women are incapable of holding these positions due to their family responsibilities placing a time constraint on them. Further, women get start-up capital for their companies 2-3x as often from women-led VC funds, but only 6% of decision makers at VC funds are women. It's no wonder women are vastly underrepresented in this field.
==What women need==
Almost half-of female founders (48 percent) cite a lack of available mentors or advisers as holding them back. A third say lack of capital is a constraint.
==Relevant policy==
==SQUO facts==
*Texas claims the worst record of supporting women seeking venture capital. Last year, 42 Texas startups got Series A rounds. Zero of them had female founders. [http://www.inc.com/lisa-calhoun/30-surprising-facts-about-female-founders.html]
