Magazines Address Gender Trends in Business

By Jennifer Hopfinger
May 2, 2006 11:36 AM

Women trail men by a wide margin when it comes to building large businesses. A mere 7 percent of companies generating more than $1 million in annual sales are owned by women. But that's changing fast, according to Fortune Small Business in its April issue, "Move Over, Mister!"

The issue suggests that while everyone has heard of Debbie Fields of Mrs. Fields cookies, when most people think of woman-owned businesses, a small company comes to mind. According to the numbers, that stereotype isn't entirely untrue, writes Anne Fisher in the issue's main story, "Which Women Get Big?"

Of course, many women run small businesses because they want to. Some are motivated to become entrepreneurs in order to have more lifestyle flexibility. But Fisher writes that another reason keeps women-owned businesses small: "Females traditionally have been underrepresented in academic fields, such as electronics, biotech, and engineering, that provide the intellectual capital for high-growth companies."

Fisher says that more women are now starting these types of businesses because they attract venture capital. And longstanding prejudices about women entrepreneurs are disappearing as men and women have now worked side by side in large numbers for more than a generation. "What's encouraging is that venture capitalists, academics, and well-connected entrepreneurs are seeing signs of a dramatic shift ... In many ways the playing field is beginning to level for women who want to take those small companies and turn them into giants."

In "How to play the VC game--and win big," writer David Whitford profiles a rapidly growing concierge service built by two female Stanford MBAs. Whitford explains how these women landed venture capital funding.

A growing number of the investors themselves are women. Elaine Pofeldt writes about the changing face of angel investing and how women are more likely to bet on each other in "Looking to wealthy women to fund a business."

Unfortunately, financial differences between men and women don't get any smaller at home, says Money magazine in its April issue, "Men, women... and money."

According to a nationwide survey of 1,000 spouses - 500 husbands and 500 wives - married couples have a long way to go to bridge the gender gap when it comes to money.

"For all our supposed financial sophistication and equality, the vast majority of married couples still divide the family's financial labors along traditional lines, with women handling everyday spending and budgeting decisions while men plan and invest for long-term security."

This may be fine if that works for you. But according to nearly all respondents, money is a major source of marital tension, causing more fights than sex or in-laws.

But it's hard to resolve conflicts when you don't even know what the issues are. "Husbands were especially clueless, tending to underestimate how much women care about almost every financial issue, from investing and saving for retirement to paying off debt. A hundred years after Freud, and men still don't know what women want."

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