IWPR Press Release: Women-Owned Businesses Have Less Access to Capital, Fewer Intellectual Property Rights, and Much Lower Revenues
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2018
Contact: Jennifer Clark | 202-785-5100 | clark@iwpr.org
Women-Owned Businesses Have Less Access to Capital, Fewer Intellectual Property Rights, and Much Lower Revenues
New reports explore gender gaps in innovation and entrepreneurship and strategies for progress
Washington, DC—Women-owned businesses with employees are less likely than businesses owned by men to hold intellectual property rights, such as patents, copyrights, and trademarks, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). The analysis, which relies on new data from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, also finds that women-owned businesses have less access to capital and receive less than half the revenues of businesses owned by men.
In a separate first-of-its-kind report also released today, IWPR details promising practices for closing these gender gaps by profiling leading programs around the United States working to increase diversity in patenting, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Women owned one in five (20.8 percent) businesses with employees in the United States in 2015, which reflects growth of 25 percent since 1997, when women owned only 16.8 percent of firms with employees. The number of women-owned businesses grew at nearly four times the rate of men-owned firms over the last two decades.
Women of color have been driving much of this growth. Since 2002, the number of firms owned by Hispanic women has increased by over 77 percent, and the number of firms owned by Black women has increased by over 40 percent. In the same period, the share of businesses owned by White women grew by 8.9 percent.
While women are less likely than men to hold intellectual property, they are more likely to engage in product innovations more broadly, including advances that improve or increase the usability of a good or service.
“Women are starting businesses and proving themselves as innovators in their fields at higher rates than ever before,” said IWPR Study Director Jessica Milli, Ph.D. “We should make sure that women have full access to opportunities to commercialize their ideas and start high-revenue ventures.”
Male entrepreneurs are twice as likely as women to receive at least $1 million in start-up funding. Men are more likely to receive start-up funding from venture capitalists, angel investors, and financial institutions, while women are more likely to use their own credit, take out home equity loans in their own names, or rely on family and friends. When they do seek out funds, women entrepreneurs are less likely than men to receive the full amount they requested.
Firms with high revenues are more likely than low-revenue firms to hold intellectual property. Women-owned businesses that have a patent pending have average revenues 16 times higher than firms without intellectual property and have the smallest revenue gaps when compared with men-owned firms. Higher revenue businesses are also more likely to conduct research and development activities than low-revenue firms.