This SC city has among highest rates of women-owned businesses in the US, study says
Women’s presence in the workplace has steadily increased over the years. Yet, a gap is still present between women-owned businesses versus men.
With March being Women’s History Month, as well as recently celebrating International Women’s Day, Charleston was found to have the 12th highest percentage of women-owned businesses in the country, according to a study conducted by Overheard On Conference Calls.
Charleston earned the 12th highest ranking nationwide by having 22.8% of businesses in the Charleston metro area being women-owned with 3,594 of these businesses in the area, according to the study’s results.
The primary findings in the study show that just 21.4% of the nation’s businesses are women-owned in comparison to 61% being men-owned and 14% being evenly split between the two.
The considerable gap between business ownership is despite the fact that women make up 46.6% of the total U.S. labor force.
Ahead of Charleston, a city in South Carolina’s neighboring state had the most women-owned businesses in the country.
The report revealed that Asheville has the highest percentage of women-owned businesses in the U.S. at 25%, with St. Louis coming in second with 24.84% and Denver in a close third with 24.8% of businesses being women-owned.
Washington, D.C. made it into fourth overall at 24.6% and Atlanta came in fifth, finalizing the top five, 23.9% of businesses in the metro being women-owned.
There may be a leading reason as to why Asheville scored so high and had the most women-owned businesses in the U.S. The answer may be as simple as prioritization.
Asheville has a number of programs aimed at promoting women in business, including the WomanUp initiative, which focuses on helping women build a strong network and support each other in business, the report by Overheard On Conference Calls states.
In contrast, Mobile reported to have the lowest percentage of women-owned businesses with just 11.9%, according to the study.
In second to last, Lancaster reported to have only 12.5% women-owned businesses and York, another Pennsylvania metro, reported just 14.4% of such businesses.
As for the remainder of the bottom five, Salt Lake City, reported just 14.8% of businesses owned by women in the community and, in fifth to last, Modesto was shown to have just 15.1%, according to the study.
