ABSTRACT

Women-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment of the small business sector in the U.S. Even so, women make up only one third of all self-employed workers. Between 1970 and 1983, women entered selfemployment at a rate five times greater than men and three times greater than women who entered wage and salaried jobs (Becker 1984). Annual rate of increase of women business owners from 1972 to 1985 was 5.1 percent compared with an over-all annual increase in self-employment of 2.9 percent (SBA 1988b). A survey conducted by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners estimated that, between 1987 and 1996, women-owned businesses grew by 78 percent, a rate of nearly 2 to 1 over all U.S. businesses. In addition, revenues of women-owned businesses were projected to triple during that time (see Poole 1996). By 1987, 30 percent of all U.S. non-farm self-employed workers were women (Aronson 1991:61). By 1992, 34 percent of all businesses were owned by women. In the Southeast, all states except Florida lagged slightly behind this national average. According to 1992 census figures, nearly one out of every four U.S. workers was employed by a womanowned firm (U.S. Depat1ment of Commerce 1996). (See Table 3.1 in Appendix A for more detail.)

White women predominate among women business owners. While the national average hovers just below 88 percent, white women in the Southeast own anywhere from 83 percent (Florida) to 95 percent (Kentucky) of women-owned firms. African American women own a greater share of women-owned firms in the Southeast than elsewhere in the nation. They own, on average, 3 to 13 percent of Southeastern woman-

owned firms compared with the U.S. average of just under 5 percent of women-owned firms. Perhaps the most striking pattern in women's business ownership is found in a comparison of African American womenowned firms as a percentage of all African American owned firms. While women in general own about a third of all firms, black women own businesses at a rate, on average, of 10 percentage points higher when compared with all black firms. Nationwide, African American women own almost 45 percent of all black firms. Black women in most Southeastern states own nearly the same proportion of black firms, with only Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina lagging below 40 percent (see Table 3.1 in Appendix A).