Gender and Small Business Success: An Inquiry into Women's Relative

Even among a successful group of small business owners, women generate lower sales volumes and derive less income than their male counterparts. Alternative explanations of women's relative disadvantage are evaluated systematically. The characteristics of the owner and the small business that differ between genders explain the discrepancy in financial success, with the smaller size of women's businesses emerging as the major explanatory factor. Women's lack of experience and their concentration in the least pro industries contribute strongly to the gender discrepancy as well. The processen through which the female small business owner generates sales and derives income are quite similar to those of her male counterpart, but even successful women are not as well positioned to exploit business opportunities as their male counterparts because of their structural disadvantages botte within and outside of the business arena. This article compares the financial success of established female and male small business owners, a topic that merges issues of gender and class. Advanced technology and the expansion of the service sector — two hallmarks of postindustrial society — have combined to foster considerable business growth in the U.S. economy. Between 1980 and 1987, businesses with fewer than 100 employees created 12 million new jobs, while during this same period Fortune 500 companies eliminated three million jobs (Ritzer 1989). Women, in particular, have been turning to small business ownership in ever-increasing numbers. * The study on which this research is based was partly supported by a grant from the Stat