By Claire Ehmann, Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of International Trade &
Christina Hale, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Women's Business Ownership
It’s an exciting time to be at the SBA where the American Dream of entrepreneurship is always alive. The number of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses has increased over the last couple of decades – contributing to the Biden-Harris Small Business Boom, which women are helping to lead. We are living during a historic period of achievements for American women entrepreneurs and President Biden is making it a priority to provide women with the assistance they need to ensure that they can build strong, resilient businesses that thrive globally.
It’s particularly exciting to see women – especially women of color – continue to lead the way with the highest startup rates. Women are also one of the most impactful segments of the business community with exponential growth in women-owned employer firms over the last decade. In fact, from 2019 to 2023, the growth rate of women-owned businesses was 94% greater than the growth rate of their male counterparts. Women-owned firms also employ more than 10 million Americans and add more than $2 trillion to America’s GDP each year – in other words, women entrepreneurs are the heart and soul of our small business community.
Despite exponential growth, women entrepreneurs and small business owners still face unique and different challenges. The pandemic highlighted many fractures, notably that many women-owned businesses did not have existing banking relationships. It also highlighted the need to increase the resilience of women-owned businesses as many were in sectors disproportionately impacted, such as consumer goods, including clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, tourism, and education.
Refusing to back down, women themselves pivoted, adapted, and digitized. Through entrepreneurship, they created their own lifelines - starting new businesses at record rates and forging a path forward.
We at the SBA are committed to creating inclusive entrepreneurial support ecosystems so that any of our new - as well as our established - women entrepreneurs can successfully pursue their American dreams of starting, growing, and building resilient businesses. And that begins with addressing the barriers that for far too long have kept them from growing and preparing them for the future with the funding and resources they need.