More and more women have found owning their own business a rewarding experience. Not only have women business owners found financial rewards in business ownership, research has shown that business ownership opened doors to other rewards including self-fulfillment. The positive implications associated with owning one's own business suggest that the trend toward greater participation in business ownership by women will continue, despite negative aspects of business ownership such as long hours and high failure rates for young firms. The data for this analysis came from the economic census Economic Census Women-Owned Businesses, and Economic Census Characteristics of Business Owners for 1992 and in selected prior years. The Bureau of the Census conducts economic censuses every 5 years, covering years ending in 2 and 7.
Special programs cover enterprise statistics and minority and women-owned businesses.
The Appendix provides the data from which all the figures were developed in Tables 1. and 2. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, Inc., 1997. What They Can Do About It , February, 1998. A ppendix Text Version Table 1 . Text Version Table 2 .