Women in Entrepreneurship

Introduction

Over the past century, the United States has witnessed two large-scale social trends involving women in entrepreneurship that have had a significant impact on the country's economic growth. First, huge numbers of women have made their way into the official labor force. Around this time 50 years ago (February 1966), women's labor force participation rate was 39.6%, but in February 2016, 56.8% of women participated in the labor force [1]. This demonstrates substantial growth in women's entry to the labor force. Second, women are achieving a higher degree of education than in years past. As labor market barriers to women have been lowered, the benefits of a college education grew more for women than men, and females outpace males in college enrollment. [2] This has provided women with access to the same jobs as men.

However, these trends have slowed from their early twenty-first century spikes; room for growth is smaller now than it was before. Economists predict that economic growth from these two trends is unlikely to be repeated to the same magnitude. With this, everyone is looking for the modern-day economy-boosting equivalent to women entering the labor force and achieving higher education. Given the slowing rates of business creation, the long-term pessimism about growth in the United States, and the rising share of women among educated workers, it seems clear that the future of American economic growth is in the hands of women. Encouraging women to enter into fields of entrepreneurship, particularly high-growth entrepreneurship, might be the United State's silver bullet.

This issue brief aims to examine the role of women in entrepreneurship today by examining their jobs (or lack thereof) in entrepreneurship and examine the effectiveness of current policy related to women in entrepreneurship.

Status Quo

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Overall, women-owned businesses account for slightly less than 1/3 of all businesses in the United States. 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. [3]. However, these women owned businesses are typically only run by the woman herself; 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. [4]

The few women in entrepreneurial leadership roles also have to deal with negative societal perceptions of their jobs. 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”. [5]

The American public's generally negative perception of women in entrepreneurship presents itself institutionally as well. Even though female founders perform equal to or better than their male counterparts when raising money online, only 10 percent of startups which raised Series A last year had female founders. [6] Texas claims the worst record of supporting women seeking venture capital. Last year, 42 Texas startups got Series A rounds, yet not a single startup had female founders. In terms of venture capital structure, ninety-four percent of decision makers at venture capital funds are male, and 90% of today's venture capital funds never see a female founder. Among chief executives of S.&P. 1500 firms, for each woman, there are four men named John, Robert, William or James. [7] But venture capital firms with women partners are more than twice as likely to invest in companies with a woman on the executive team and three times as likely to invest in companies with women CEOs.

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. Further, women get start-up capital for their companies 2-3 times 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. [8]

Relevant policy

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 the field of women entrepreneurs, 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.

The president has worked on increasing small business access to capital through the Recovery Act and the Small Business Jobs Act. Through this act, the president has reformed SBA lending practices and built on existing infrastructure. SBA loans are 3-5x more likely to go to women and minorities than traditional business loans. Over 12,000 SBA Recovery loans have gone to women-owned small businesses, totaling more than $3 billion. [9] The president has also increased tax cuts with the aim of helping small businesses invest in their firms and create jobs. Specific to women, the SBA opened several new Women's Business Centers in 2009 and 2010, bringing their total to 114.

Jessica Milli, senior research associate at the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, said things like the Jobs Act and SBA's programs for women "really aim to put women-owned businesses...at a competitive advantage. (They) restrict 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 entrepreneur. Even with targeted legislation, women business owners still face a significant wage gap and continually have smaller amounts of start-up capital than their male peers.