Women’s History Month Highlights The Progress And Challenges Facing Women Entrepreneurs

Every year since 1987, the month of March has been designated by Congress as Women’s History Month. The President issues an annual proclamation on Women’s History Month, highlighting the progress the Administration has made on behalf of women and girls, and federal agencies announce new programs, initiatives and funding opportunities for women owned businesses.

The last three years have been exceptionally difficult for everyone, though especially for women. As a result of the pandemic, rising costs and supply chain disruptions, a record number of women left the workforce to care for children and loved ones, to establish a stronger work-life balance or because they felt underappreciated in their roles. While many women left jobs during the pandemic, data suggests that some of them did so to start their own businesses, with 80% of women who started businesses did so from scratch, as opposed to buying another business or franchise. More than half also launched their ventures solo, which is double the rate of men who did the same. A bright spot has been that many new businesses started by women are started by Black women, who have been the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in America even before the start of the pandemic.

In spite of the difficult challenges that women continue to navigate, they are returning to work and starting businesses. There are more resources to support the growth of women owned businesses now than ever before. This week, the President announced ongoing and additional resources for women owned businesses, including an expansion of the Women’s Business Center (WBC) network. This expansion will bring the total number of WBCs to 160 across the country to assist women entrepreneurs through mentorship, technical assistance, business development and financing opportunities. The SBA’s network of additional resource partners, including SCORE and the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) offer a strong portfolio of resources that women entrepreneurs can access to help grow their businesses, including the SCORE resource hub for women entrepreneurs.

These are much needed resources for women owned businesses, especially now as more and more women are turning to entrepreneurship, and track with the concerns that women entrepreneurs share as it relates to economic challenges facing their businesses. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit down with the leaders of several women and minority business organizations, including the President and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy, Candace Waterman. She said that women are approaching the future with cautious optimism, and that they want to see leaders in Congress prioritizing what they can agree on to find solutions to the challenges faced by small businesses.

On the policy front, there’s reason to be optimistic, with Congressional leaders coming together to explore solutions to paid leave with the launch of the Bipartisan House Working Group on Paid Leave, led by Reps. Houlahan (D-PA) and Bice (R-OK). Additional policies seek to address access to affordable healthcare options, a major barrier to success for entrepreneurs, including the fix for the “family glitch,” new health reimbursement arrangement options, and reducing barriers to enrollment in the Marketplace for women-owned businesses will allow female entrepreneurs to have the tools to grow. The Inflation Reduction Act also took actions to control prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time, a top concern among small business owners, and pressure is mounting to build on the momentum of that legislation to expand savings outside Medicare into the private market.

As women continue to start more businesses, it is crucial that they have access to the resources and tools they need to be successful. The increased investments in resources that help them start their businesses and in policy issues that acutely impact women, such as paid leave and increasing access to affordable healthcare options, will be strong determinants to their success.