Women Well Suited for Entrepreneurial Success

Subscribe today for Free Enterprise Updates

  • Latest business trends and best practices
  • News about legislation and regulation impacting business
  • Business how-to articles from industry experts
  • Commentary and interviews with newsmakers in business and politics
Nov 2, 2011

Women turned a new page of history in the year 2010. For the first time, they became the majority of the U.S. workforce. According to Hanna Rosin’s Atlantic article titled “The End of Men,” 57% of college attendants are now women. However, it is still true that men continue to head the executive ranks. And while there is still a long way to reach the glass ceiling on that front, women do retain an impressive number of profitable careers today. According to the same article, they make up 54% of accountants, 50% of all banking and insurance jobs and 45% of law school associates. They also continue to be successful as entrepreneurs, doubling their ownership of firms between the years 1997 and 2011. Women are well suited for entrepreneurship as a result of their strong communication skills, listening capabilities, collaborative propensities, and their preference for lower risk engagement.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="252" caption="Courtesy of Mashable"][/caption]

An Op-Ed piece written by Nellie Akalp and featured on Mashable explains the increases in female entrepreneurial roles:

Men took a bigger hit in the employment market during the recession. Traditionally male-dominated industries, like construction and manufacturing, have been severely affected by the economy. On the other hand, fields traditionally dominated by women, such as healthcare and education, have added jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that women make up more than two-thirds of employees in 10 of the 15 job categories projected to grow the fastest in the coming years.

Entrepreneurship in the digital age lends itself to childcare, a consideration that affects any discussion of women in the workforce. Young, single, urban woman are outearning their male counterparts; however, this trend reverses as workers age and start families. And even though many companies are replacing “maternity leave” with more gender-neutral “flex time,” it’s clear that working women will always be seeking that balance of career and family.

Continue reading about why women make such great entrepreneurs in a digital age here.