The Kentucky Standard

The business field used to be a man’s world, but times have changed. Today, there is a growing movement of women who are starting their own businesses or moving up the ladder into top CEO roles. This week, National Business Women’s Week, is a time to honor the contributions of working women while calling attention to women entrepreneurs and women business leaders who have shattered glass ceilings.

The strong representation of women in entrepreneurship continues to grow as women now make up 40 percent of all new entrepreneurs in the U.S., according to the 2016 State of Women-owned Business Report commissioned by American Express.

Over the past nine years, the rate of women entrepreneurs has grown at double the rate of their male counterparts since the Great Recession. With this growth, women are now the majority owners of 38 percent of U.S. businesses. In fact, women-owned companies are outpacing the national average in both job creation and revenue generation since 2007.

Geographically, the greatest growth in the number of women-owned businesses since the Great Recession has been in the South.

We are also seeing more women leading companies in industries that typically have been male dominated.

In this year’s Fortune 500 list that was just released, the number of women CEOs increased to 32. While this is the largest number of female CEOs ever to appear on the Fortune 500 list, it’s still only 6.4 percent of the total list, and women are still under-represented in top corporation leadership roles.

Experts will all agree that the rise of female business owners and leaders is not surprising because of a number of reasons.

Relationships are important in the business world, even though we live in a technology-driven world. Women think differently in terms of relationships. They are more adept in relationship building by being real communicators. As the business world shifts from informing to communicating, women will have great opportunities and succeed.

Women are more intuitive than men. They are great at looking at the entire system and how processes are interconnected instead of just focusing on lone elements.

Women tend to work more toward collaboration. They work harder to break down barriers and get people communicating, working together and problem solving.

In today’s business world, women just want an opportunity and an equal playing field.

The growing power of women in business is exciting and should be celebrated.