America's Quiet Powerhouse: Women-Owned Businesses Are Rewriting the Economy
By TopHolding Editorial · Friday, June 26, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Women now own 39% of all U.S. businesses, employ more than 12 million people, and are launching firms at nearly twice the rate of men. The numbers tell a story of momentum — and an economy that increasingly runs on female founders.
Women now own 39% of U.S. businesses, employ 12.2 million people, and generate $2.7 trillion in annual revenue — and they are starting new firms faster than anyone else in the country.
A record share of American business
There are roughly 14 million women-owned businesses in the United States today — about 39% of every business in the country. That is a stunning jump from 29% a decade ago, and from just 4.6% in 1972, the year the U.S. Census first started counting.
Together, these firms generate an estimated $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and employ more than 12.2 million workers. If U.S. women-owned businesses were their own economy, they would rank among the ten largest in the world.
Starting faster than anyone else
Between 2019 and 2023, the number of women-owned employer firms grew at nearly twice the rate of those owned by men. Women of color drove an outsized share of that growth: businesses owned by Black, Latina, and Asian American women have collectively expanded at multiples of the overall small-business average.
Roughly 1,800 new women-owned businesses are opening in the U.S. every single day. That pace has held for three straight years, even through a high-rate environment that slowed lending for almost everyone else.
Women-owned share of all U.S. businesses
Values in %
Where the growth is happening
Health care and social assistance, professional services, retail, and education together account for more than half of all women-owned firms. But the fastest growth is showing up in less expected corners — construction, transportation, and technology services — where women-led startups are scaling rapidly.
Geographically, Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, and North Carolina lead in raw growth. Smaller metros like Nashville, Charlotte, Austin, and Tampa now rank among the most active markets in the country for new women-founded businesses.
The capital gap is real — and closing
Women-owned businesses still receive a disproportionately small slice of venture capital — around 2% of dollars go to all-female founding teams. But on the small-business side, the picture is brightening: SBA-backed loans to women-owned firms have hit record highs three years running, and community lenders report a surge in approvals for women borrowers.
Revenue per firm is climbing too. Average receipts at women-owned employer firms have grown faster than the national average since 2020, narrowing — though not yet closing — the long-standing revenue gap with male-owned peers.
Why this matters for the broader economy
Women-owned firms have added about 1.4 million jobs since 2019, accounting for a meaningful share of total U.S. small-business job creation in that period. They are also more likely to hire women and people of color, which broadens income gains across communities that have historically been underrepresented in entrepreneurship.
Put simply: the small-business sector — the part of the economy that creates roughly two-thirds of net new jobs in the U.S. — is increasingly being built by women. That shift is showing up in payrolls, in Main Street vacancy rates, and in the kinds of products and services Americans are spending on.
Not just founders — women running America's biggest companies
The story is not only about Main Street. A growing roster of women now run some of the largest, most consequential public companies in the United States — operating businesses with hundreds of billions in revenue, millions of customers, and global supply chains.
Mary Barra has led General Motors since 2014, steering the automaker through its EV transition. Jane Fraser became the first woman to run a major Wall Street bank when she took over Citigroup in 2021 and is now mid-way through a sweeping restructuring. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD since 2014, has overseen one of the most dramatic turnarounds in tech history — AMD's market value has grown more than fortyfold under her leadership and the company is now a central player in the AI chip race.
Safra Catz runs Oracle, one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world. Carol Tomé leads UPS, Julie Sweet runs Accenture, Gail Boudreaux runs health insurer Elevance, and Kathy Warden leads defense giant Northrop Grumman. Thasunda Brown Duckett heads TIAA, overseeing more than $1 trillion in retirement assets.
On the founder-CEO side, Whitney Wolfe Herd returned as CEO of Bumble in 2025 to lead its next chapter, and Melanie Perkins continues to scale Canva past a $40 billion valuation as co-founder and CEO. Together, these leaders make clear that the rise of women in business is happening at every altitude — from the corner store to the C-suite of the Fortune 100.
Bottom line for investors
Women founders are no longer a side story in U.S. business — they are a primary engine of new firms, new jobs, and new revenue. For investors, lenders, and policymakers, the practical question has shifted from whether to back women-led businesses to how fast they can get capital to them.
Key terms
- 1Employer firm: A business with at least one paid employee beyond the owner, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- 2SBA-backed loan: A small-business loan partially guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which reduces lender risk and expands access to credit.