The major legislation, movements and factors that shaped the way women business owners are perceived today. Plus, a look at the current trends in female entrepreneurship and how it affects your bottom line.

1. Women Business Owners:
Standing on the Shoulder Pads
of Giants.
By Kristin Slice, MA
Empowered Lab Communications
Photo and Content Credit: National Women’s History Museum 2013

2. What is the definition of Entrepreneur?
Understanding Past Major
Events
Trends that Affect Your
Business Today
Current State of WBO’s
Looking to the Future

3. A History

4. 1910-1939
• Culture has always influenced
women business owner growth
• Industries, access to capital,
language
• Progressivism, feminism,
consumerism and immigration

5. 1940-1959
Post WWII
The Federation of Business
and Professional Women’s
Clubs and state officials—first
in New York and then
nationwide founded 1919—
ran workshops for aspiring
entrepreneurs with advice
from trailblazers such as
Elizabeth Arden and male
business leaders.

6. 1940-1959
Post WWII
The rise of the home
based business.

7. 1960 -1970 A Time of Change
• Civil Rights and Feminism
changed the way women
understood themselves and
their rights.
• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights
Act prohibited sex
discrimination in employment
by any company with more than
twenty employee.

8. 1960 -1970 A Time of Change
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, written by Rep. Bella Abzug
(D-NY). This law made it illegal for creditors to discriminate against
applicants based on sex, as well other categories.
• Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1973—which banned
discrimination lending—paved the way for a future revolution
in capitalizing woman-owned enterprises with more than just
credit cards and savings, as women had traditionally done.11

9. HR 5050 Women’s Business Ownership Act
“1988, urged on by the National Association of Women
Business Owners (NAWBO), Congress passed The Women’s
Business Ownership Act, which ended discrimination in
lending, eliminated state laws that required married women
to have a husband’s signature for all loans and gave women-
owned businesses a chance to compete for lucrative
government contracts. Proof that women entrepreneurs were
finally an accepted part of the mainstream economy.”

10. HR 5050 Women’s Business Ownership Act
• The establishment of programs to assist women
• The elimination of all remaining state laws that required women to have a
male relative sign a business loan
• Quotas for granting procurement contracts
• The formation of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council and
National Women’s Business Council
• The expansion of the data collection parameters required by the Census
Bureau to more accurately gather data about women-owned
businesses.23

11. Trends

12. The Role of the Economy
During the challenging economic cycles of the last century, traditional ideas
about gender roles have been a significant factor in driving women to
become entrepreneurs.
• Great Depression –women started business to “not compete ”
• 1970 Recessions – women where the first let go
• 2008 Recession – women entrepreneurs the only populations to continue
to grow.

13. Motivation
• Glass Ceiling
• Work Schedule
• Discrimination
• Necessity

14. Change Agents
• Leadership
• Advocacy
• Networking
• Capital

15. Today

17. #THISisPhXX

20. Procurement
and
Certification