1 in 4 Work at Women-Owned Firms in U.S.

One of every four American workers is employed by a business owned by a woman, according to a national survey released Tuesday.

The National Foundation for Women Business Owners said women own more than a third of all businesses in the nation--7.95 million companies. That figure is up from 4.48 million in 1987, a 78% growth rate that dwarfs the 47% rate of increase for all U.S. firms.

As a result, sales at women-owned firms have jumped 236%, to $2.28 trillion from $681 billion in 1987. Employment at such firms shot up to 18.5 million workers--26% of the U.S. work force--from nearly 6.6 million nine years ago.

“Sales and employment generated by women-owned businesses have skyrocketed over the past nine years,” said Susan Peterson, the foundation chairwoman and owner of a Washington production firm.

“The sheer strength of the numbers reaffirms that women business owners are powerful catalysts for promoting the health of our economy,” she said.

Julie Weeks, the foundation’s research director, linked the rapid growth partly to the steady increase of working women since World War II.

“After such a long time, women are moving into ownership,” she said, adding that some women start their own businesses when they find “they have advanced as far as they can go.”

“Also, you have younger women in business school . . . or seeking some other professional degree thinking of entrepreneurship right off the bat,” she said. “And some daughters are inheriting businesses from their parents,” who in previous generations would pass them on to sons instead.

The report, titled “1996 Facts on Women-Owned Businesses,” is based on 1991-94 census data.

The findings closely parallel those of a 1995 foundation study by Dun & Bradstreet Information Services based on information from the Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and D&B; Information Services.

The report shows that the number of companies owned by women is increasing in every state, led by Nevada with a growth rate of 130% since 1987.

California has the largest number of women-owned businesses at 1.082 million.