Industries Where Women Entrepreneurs Outperform Men

Research by two Cornell University faculty members reveals the type of businesses operated by women that tend to meet with the most success. A study, by Michele Williams, an assistant professor of organizational behavior and Arthurs Kalnins, an associate professor in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell, examined the success rates of 1 million small businesses in Texas.

The data shows that women-owned entrepreneurial enterprises typically outperform those of men in particular industry niches. Sectors where women tended to do better than men were educational services, dance studios, clothing stores, gift giving, and alcohol sales and services.

The results also showed that women-owned businesses outperformed male-owned businesses in cities with populations of more than 500,000. The reverse was true in smaller cities.

Dr. Williams stated, “If we can learn from smaller slices of the economy where women business owners have multiple advantages, we can better understand when and how entrepreneurship truly creates paths toward income equality for women.”

Dr. Williams is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University. She earned a master’s degree at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in organization behavior and human resource management at the University of Michigan.

The article, “When Do Female-Owned Businesses Out-Survive Male-Owned Businesses? A Disaggregated Approach by Industry and Geography,” will be published in Journal of Business Venturing. It can be accessed here.