Women To Watch 10.12.25 - Flipbook - Page 8
Women &
By Katharine Wilson
and Tracie Rawson
BUSINESS
OWNERSHIP
BY THE NUMBERS
Women going through the Maryland Women’s Business
Center — some already among the owners of Maryland's
more than 289,000 women-owned businesses, others
hoping to join them — tend to be driven by a desire to fix
a problem or be pushed into entrepreneurship because of
the job market, said Karen Sippel, the center's managing
director.
This year, Sippel has seen a lot of former federal workers,
laid off due to Trump administration cuts to the federal
workforce, going through the business development
center. The federal cuts have led to at least 12,700 people
losing their jobs in Maryland.
Ownership of Maryland
businesses by gender and type
Employer
As women across the country, and in Maryland, are owning more
businesses, women who own small businesses say there are still roadblocks, but they also see ways through them.
Maryland consistently has a higher rate of women
in the workforce than the US as a whole
Nonemployer
8%
18%
82%
92%
MEN
WOMEN
Data is from 2022 surveys. Percentages are rounded.
Chart: Staff. Source: Annual Business Survey, Nonemployer
Statistics by Demographics. Created with Datawrapper
44.8%
of businesses in Maryland are
owned by women or are equally
owned by women and men as
of 2022, according to Census
Bureau data.
Ownership of US businesses
by gender and type
Employer
The broader workforce
Maryland has a higher-than-average rate of women participating in the workforce,
61% compared with 57.5% for the United States as a whole.
The state is tied for the eighth-smallest wage gap in the country, with women earning
about 86 cents per every dollar men make, according to a National Women's Law Center
analysis of 2023 American Community Survey data. Women of color, according to the
report, experience greater wage disparities:
50¢
Amount Hispanic women
earn for every dollar a white
non-Hispanic man makes in
Maryland.
68¢
Amount Black women
earn for every dollar a white
non-Hispanic man makes in
Maryland.
MEN
19%
81%
Nonemployer
WOMEN
9%
91%
Data is from 2022 surveys. Percentages are rounded.
Chart: Staff. Source: Annual Business Survey, Nonemployer
Statistics by Demographics. Created with Datawrapper
