It has only been 50 years since the Fair Credit Opportunity Act was signed into law by President Gerald Ford. Before the law, banks were legally allowed to deny women credit cards without a male cosigner. The passage of this law opened up a new avenue for financial independence for women that has helped women work, start their own businesses, and participate in society in the same way men always could.
So for the last week of Women’s History Month, let’s talk about resources and ideas for covering women and businesses better.
Women in business
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collects and publishes all kinds of data on women in the workplace. Their annual report on women’s earnings breaks down earnings by age group, race, educational attainment, and occupational sector while comparing it to their male counterparts. The report highlights longitudinal data to demonstrate changes over time, starting in 1979 – the first year it collected comparable data. The BLS also publishes quarterly data highlighting weekly earnings. The next report is scheduled to be published on April 16.
Some other great data sources:
- McKinsey & Company published their 10th-anniversary edition of their Women in the Workplace report last September.
- The Library of Congress archives various reports by government agencies and women’s advocacy organizations on women in the economy.
- UN Women collects and shares data on women’s economic empowerment around the globe.
- The Census Bureau tracks various data on women, such as if you’re interested in knowing how many women make more money than their husbands over time (see Table F-22).
Women-owned businesses
The National Women’s Business Council is a nonpartisan federal advisory committee representing the issues of women business owners and entrepreneurs to Congress and the Small Business Administration (SBA). This council was created under the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988, which also eliminated state laws requiring women to have a male relative cosign a business loan – a huge barrier to female business ownership. Today, the SBA provides various programs, resources, and support for women entrepreneurs on its website, including the Office of Women’s Business Ownership which includes “business training, counseling, federal contracts, and access to credit and capital.”
These aren’t the only sources of information on women-owned businesses. For example, Wells Fargo published their Impact of Women-Owned Business Report which highlighted, among other things, that “during the pandemic, women-owned businesses added 1.4 million jobs and $579.6 billion in revenue to the economy.”
Women-centric businesses
Finally, women aren’t just workers and business owners. As we noted last week, women are also a very powerful consumer demographic driving sales and can help make or break a new business. Businesses that cater specifically to women in historically male-dominated spaces – such as a full-service auto repair shop staffed by women mechanics in Pennsylvania – are seeing real success.
The very first sports bar in the U.S. dedicated to showcasing women’s sports opened in Portland after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2022. The instant success of The Sports Bra inspired more women’s sports bars to open around the country, including a brand-new one in Phoenix this month.
Jenny Nguyen, owner of The Sports Bra, told CNBC that she was able to make $1 million in the first eight months of doing business because, as her business plan stated, “The only competition is the status quo.”
