Young Women Misbehavin'

Each year during the third week in October, we stop a moment to honor the contributions of working women and the employers who support them during Business and Professional Women’s Foundation’s National Business Women’s Week® (NBWW). Established in 1928, National Business Women’s Week® is an occasion to call attention to women entrepreneurs, facilitate discussions on the needs of working women, share information about successful workplace policies, and raise awareness of the resources available for working women in their communities.

NBWW is a great opportunity to recognize and highlight the progress women have made as business owners and entrepreneurs. Today there are 7.2 million majority-owned, privately-held, women-owned businesses in the United States. These firms employ 7.3 million people and generate $1.1 trillion in sales. Only twenty years ago it was still legal to require a woman to have a male co-signer before receiving a business loan. That changed with the passage of the Women’s Business Ownership Act in 1988. The Women’s Business Ownership Act not only made the requirement of a male signature illegal it also created the National Women’s Business Council, the Office of Women’s Business Ownership and the network of Women’s Business Centers around the country.

Currently helmed by Administrator Karen Mills, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is the only federal agency whose primary mission is to be a resource for all small business owners. Created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government, the SBA aids, counsels, assists and protects the interests of small business concerns. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. The SBA typically provides $20 million in loans and loan guarantees annually.

Within the SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership are the Women Business Centers (WBC) that provide training and counseling to thousands of women business owners across the country from 112 centers in nearly every state. Ana Recio Harvey, former president of the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, was recently named head of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership. Find your local WBC >>>

Not all women-owned or run businesses are small. There are currently 13 women running Fortune 500 companies. While that is nowhere close to parity, it does represent an increase over the mere 2 in 1998.

At a press conference in March, President Obama said that small businesses will drive the economic recovery and we know that women-owned business are going to be a major part of that. BPW Foundation hopes you utilize NBWW to promote successful workplaces and the women who make it all happen.