What were the characteristics of women business owners in 1992? When considering individual proprietorships, partnerships, or subchapter S corporations, women-owned businesses were found in every industrial sector. However, there was a distinct difference in industrial classification patterns for women-owned firms compared with firms owned by men.

In 1992, nearly 75 percent of these women-owned firms operated as a service or retail trade; this was 41 percent of all such businesses in the country. While both women-owned and men-owned firms were most often in the service industries, the second largest group for women was retail trade while for non-minority men, the second largest group was construction.

Within retail trade, women business owners were particularly concentrated in apparel and accessory stores, where they owned 54 percent of all firms and accounted for 34 percent of gross receipts. They were also particularly concentrated in miscellaneous retail stores with 53 percent of all firms and 31 percent of gross receipts. The number of women-owned construction businesses nearly doubled between 1987 and 1992, from 94,300 to 183,700, while wholesalers increased 87 percent, confirming large growth in the less traditional business sectors for women.

Sixty-four percent of the receipts generated by women-owned firms were concentrated in retail trade, services and wholesale trade. Automotive dealers, gasoline service stations, and miscellaneous retail stores accounted for 51 percent of the retail trade revenue.

Moore and Buttner (1997) suggest that "traditional" women entrepreneurs before the 1980's tended to be proprietors of small, slow-growing service businesses with low earnings and few assets .⁴ "Second generation" women entrepreneurs started to appear in the 1980's. Many of these women left corporations to start their own firms in nontraditional female business sectors.

The study suggested that women started their own businesses from a desire for self-determination and for the challenge, with the corresponding respect, recognition, and self-esteem that both self-determination and challenge provide. The research did not support the assumption that women start their own businesses to help balance work and family obligations.

How prevalent were home-based businesses among women business owners? Overall, approximately 50 percent of all women-owned businesses in 1992 were home-based while 56 percent of individual proprietorships were home-based. While women-owned and men-owned businesses were almost equally likely to use the residence primarily to do clerical work (22.6 percent for women and 24.9 percent for men), women-owned businesses were substantially more likely to use the home to produce goods and services on the premises than men-owned businesses. In 1992, 26.4 percent of women-owned businesses compared to 17.3 percent of businesses owned by men used the home chiefly for production.

What were the characteristics of the workforce found in women-owned businesses? In 1992, about two-thirds of women-owned businesses indicated that 50 percent or more of their employees were women.

What was the educational attainment of women business owners? About one in five women business owners in 1992 was a high school graduate; one in five had some college education but no degree; and one in five had a Bachelor's degree from college. None of the other educational classifications contained substantial numbers of women business owners.