Female Entrepreneurs Outgrowing Males

Recent studies continue to show a disturbing fact about women: They’re paid a lot less than men despite being collectively more highly educated than men. The most recent study found that for every one dollar a male employee earned, a women doing the same job earned just 72 cents.

If a man and a woman were each offered the same job, the man who received a salary of $100,000 would have as their colleague, a woman earning only $72,000. This divide is so wide that the Obama Administration has vowed to address this issue and has made it one of the main talking points of his presidential reelection campaign. The study also found that the higher up the career ladder women went, the larger the divide.

This might be true in the more traditional workforce but are female entrepreneurs affected? American Express reports that women-owned companies are generating $1.3 trillion in annual revenues. This represents an increase of 58 percent over the past 15 years. From 1997 through 2007, women-owned companies have created more than 500,000 jobs, currently employing 7.7 million people. As a gender, these business owners have created more jobs than any other subgroup of privately owned companies.

If you’re a woman considering becoming an entrepreneur there are certain areas of the economy that appear to be more kind to females. 53 percent of all businesses in the healthcare industry are female owned as well as 45 percent of educational firms and across the nation, 29 percent of all privately owned businesses are female owned. But women aren’t dominating all sectors. The financial industry is only 20 percent women owned while construction is only 8 percent.

Female entrepreneurs are also outgrowing other demographics. Women owned businesses are growing faster than the norm in industries like wholesale trade, finance and insurance, healthcare, real estate, and social assistance. This may be, in part, because women tend to privately fund their startups. Only 5.5 percent of female owned businesses financed their startup with a loan compared to the national average of 10.7 percent.

While females employed by another company may only earn 72 cents for every dollar earned by males, women who choose to start their own business will find more opportunity for growth. If you’re a woman hoping to start a business of your own in the near future, know that studies show that you might have an easier time growing your business than your male counterparts.