Fair Financing

The numbers are in: Women head 38 percent of U.S. businesses yet receive less than 10 percent of the equity capital invested in American firms. A National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO) study, which surveyed professional, corporate and bank-affiliated investors, as well as female entrepreneurs, found that firms led by women constituted 9 percent of all institutional investment deals and received only 2.3 percent of all institutional investment dollars.

VentureOne's quarterly survey of venture-backed companies with women in top management found that in the first half of 2000, 6 percent of venture-backed firms had female CEOs.

Faced with evidence that women get the short end of the equity capital stick, some prominent advocates for women in business offer possible solutions.

This article was originally published in the January 2001 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Fair Financing.