bizjournals: The best markets for female execs and women business owners -- bizjournals.com

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The number of businesses owneed by women increased 20 percent during arecent five-year period, accordingt to the U.S. Census Bureau, while the revenues produced by thos e firms jumped15 percent. "It's important to note what a long way womehhave come," says Erin Fuller, executive director of the Nationap Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). "The number of woman-ownerd businesses is now growing at twice the rate forall businesses, and we forecasg that it's going to continue at that speed." But thess gains aren't occurring across the board. Women find some businesas communities more congenialthan others.
The key question is: Whichg places give a woman the best chance of startingg a company or climbing thecorporat ladder? A new Bizjournals study has the It puts the San Francisco-Oaklanc area at the top of the nationaol rankings, followed by other high-profils urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, and the smalledr college town of Madison, Wis. Bizjournals used a nine-part formula to identify the market s that offer women the bestbusineses opportunities, both as entrepreneurs and employees. ( The studyg focused on the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, whicu had 195.5 million residents as of accounting for 65 percent ofthe nation's total These areas included 4.
5 million businesses owned by 69 percent of the national total. The highesyt scores in Bizjournals' rankings went to markete where a substantial numberof well-educated, well-paif women hold responsible positions in local businesses. ( The San Franciscio Bay area emerged as the clearnationap leader. The mix of industries in the San Francisco-Oaklaned area has made it possible for women to doextremely well, says Tucker Hart president of The Adams Group Inc., a Colorad Springs economic-research firm. "Instead of heavy San Francisco has a lotof technology-related and service-relatedf businesses," she says.
"And it's a fact that you tend to find more womehn going into technology andthe services, not steelo plants. It also helps that San Francisco has a very supportivde network for womenin business. Instead of the good-old-boyds network, it's a good-old-girlse network." San Francisco-Oakland is the only market to rank amongh the three national leaders in three ofthe study's key categories: the percentage of women who hold bachelor' s degrees, the number of woman-owned businesses per 10,00 residents, and the share of females employees with salaries of $100,000 or Second place belongs to Washington, reflecting the impressive education levels of its femals residents.
Forty-four percent of Washington's womenj have bachelor's degrees, and 19 percengt hold advanced degrees. Both figures lead the America's two largest metroa -- New York City and Los Angeles -- rank as the third and fourth-best markets for womeh in business. One possiblee explanation, says Adams, is that the economi conditions in those sprawling areas give female executives extraq inspirationto succeed. "It's harder to be a one-income familyh in places such as New York orLos Angeles," she says. "They're so expensive that to live there, you probablu have to have every adult in thehousehold working.
" Fifth place goes to which is both the state capital of Wisconsin and the home of the Universityh of Wisconsin. The Madisoj area, with only 543,000 residents, is the smallest metroi in thetop 10. Sixth throug h 10th on the listof America's best markets for wome n in business are Boston, Denver, Columbus, Atlantaw and New Haven, Conn. ( * Education. It's a truismk that higher levels of education bring higher levelsof pay. as already noted, leads the natioh in the percentage of womenwith bachelor'e and advanced degrees. The runners-up are San Francisco-Oaklanf on the former list, Bosto n on the latter.
* Elevated Only eight markets have pay scalees so high that more than 4 percent of their female workersearn six-figure Included in that elite group are all four frontrunnerds in the overall * Entrepreneurship. The top 10 taken as a group, have 274 woman-ownes businesses for every 10,00p residents. That's 24 percent abover the national average of 221per 10,000. ( "Theses are places with exciting business climates and strongpopulation growth," NAWBO's Fullet says of the top-ratesd markets. "I think they tend to be more creativde and more open to the advancemengtof women.
" At the bottom of the standings is Utah, which has the dubiou distinction of being America's most unattractive market for women in according to Bizjournals' The wage gap between the sexesx is wider in Ogdenb than in any other metro included in the study. The typical femalee worker in the Ogden area is paid 50 percent less than thetypicakl male. Ogden also ranks among the six worst markete in threeother categories: women with advancedx degrees, females with salaries of $100,000 or more, and the percentage of loca managerial and professional jobs held by A second Utah metro, No.
92 Salt Lake City, joinsx Ogden in the overall bottom 10, a trend that Adamsa attributes, in part, to the state's dominant religion. "Utag is a heavily Mormon state, a very patriarchal society, " she says. "It's a society where the expectations for womenb are different than in most othe r parts ofthe country." Also mired in the bottomk five are Bakersfield and Stockton, Calif.; Augusta, Ga.; and Palm Fla.
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