Women Entrepreneurs: Our Nation's Untapped Economic Potential
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Thom Ruhe, Director of Entrepreneurship, The Kauffman Foundation
Last week, the Kauffman Foundation released "Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers." This white paper looks at the potential of women entrepreneurs to grow our economy.
There is certainly some thought-provoking information in this paper. Lesa Mitchell, Kauffman Foundation vice president of advancing innovation, and the paper’s author, offers some startling facts on women entrepreneurship. For example, although 46 percent of the workforce is female, women represent only 35 percent of startup business owners. Even more alarming is that their firms tend to experience less growth and prosperity than firms started by men.
Lesa goes into the potential reasons behind this ever-present gap. But what I find most compelling is her thoughts on why everyone should care about it: “Women’s entrepreneurship is an economic issue, not a gender-equity issue. As more women engage as entrepreneurs to build on their discoveries, new jobs and economic prosperity will follow.”
Read this insightful report and learn what Lesa recommends as ways to boost female entrepreneurship in the U.S. and, in turn, boost our national economy.
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