On July 23, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee held a hearing, “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Understanding Success, Addressing Persistent Challenges, and Identifying New Opportunities.” The committee also released a report, “21st Century Barriers of Women’s Entrepreneurship.”
Barbara Corcoran, founder, The Corcoran Group/ABC’s Shark Tank, stated, “Though the rate of women in entrepreneurship has risen in the past few years, the startup game remains vastly male dominated. Women led companies have received only seven percent of all venture capital funding in the United States. A new study led by Harvard Business School found that both regular people and experienced angel investors are more likely to be swayed by a man’s business pitch, especially an attractive man’s, compared with the exact same pitch by a woman. In one test, men were 60 percent more likely to be awarded funding than women.”
Lynn Sutton, chief executive officer, Advantage Building Contractors, stated, “The lost decade, between Congress approving the [Women-Owned Small Business Procurement] program in 2000 and the Small Business Administration (SBA) rulemaking in 2011, translated to $94 billion in missed contracting opportunities for WOSBs [women-owned small businesses]. And while the percentage of prime contracts awarded to WOSBs increased following the program’s final implementation in 2011, the federal government has still yet to meet its five percent goal…Most recently, in FY2012, the government achieved four percent in contracts awarded to WOSBs – a one percent shortfall equal to $4 billion in lost opportunities.”
Victoria Wortberg, program manager, Washington Center for Women in Business, stated on behalf of the Association of Women’s Business Centers (WBCs), “The growth and impact of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in the United States over the last 40 years is impressive and Women’s Business Centers have been there to help. In 1970, only five percent of businesses were women-owned. Today, there are 7.8 million women-owned businesses, representing nearly 30 percent of all businesses in the United States. Since the WBC program was established, WBCs have counseled more than 1.6 million entrepreneurs – or about 20 percent of women in business today. We need to ensure that the critical program is there to continue serving the next generation of entrepreneurial women – it is time to modernize the program and think bigger. Women deserve as much.”
The following witnesses also testified:
