The Big Impact of Women-Owned Businesses in US - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Businesses at least half-owned by women produce almost $3 trillion in revenue each year in the US and employ, directly or indirectly, 16% of the national workforce.

• Data from the Center for Women’s Business Research, sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy and Wal-Mart showed that if such businesses were counted as global economic players by themselves, their output would make them the fifth largest economy in the world.

• Women-controlled companies generate jobs for 23 million people, the study found, nearly double the number of the 50 largest U.S. companies, The Washington Post reported.

• “This really gives us good, secure statistics to go to policymakers with,” Margaret Barton, executive director of the National Women’s Business Council, told The Post.

• Esther Silver-Parker, Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs, said, “Judging from today’s data, women have been and will be, a key driver to economic recovery.”

• Wal-Mart said that 4 in 10 business members of its Sam’s Club division are women who own small businesses, one reason the retailer helped sponsor the study.

The Women Impacting Public Policy news release

The Washington Post report