Engendering Female Entrepreneurs

Women own nearly half of startups in the U.S., but many obstacles keep them from fulfilling their potential, says author Marilyn Kourilsky

Women entrepreneurs are emerging as a major force in the U.S. economy. According to Marilyn Kourilsky, a professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and director of the Institute for the Study of Educational Entrepreneurship, 1 out of every 11 women is a business owner. Female-owned businesses account for almost half of all privately held firms, generating $2.3 trillion in annual sales. The number of women who express an interest in becoming entrepreneurs is also rising. Yet they’re still regularly deterred from taking that path, says Kourilsky.

In her book The New Female Entrepreneur, co-authored with William Walstad, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln economics professor, Kourilsky examines how a collective of parents, educators, and the media on the whole offer a more male-centric view of entrepreneurship, leaving women unprepared for the challenges and potential rewards of owning their own businesses.

BusinessWeek Online reporter Stacy Perman recently spoke with Kourilsky about barriers female entrepreneurs continue to face and the ways in which they can break through them. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

Full Story: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/feb2005/sb20050225_4652_sb013.htm