Although businesswomen still struggle to achieve professional success without having to make grand personal sacrifices, there's no question that women inhabit a wholly different place in society now than they did 50 or 100 years ago. In fact, women-owned businesses continue to fuel the economy, according to early 2024 research delivered by Wells Fargo. The bank's 2024 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Business Report indicated that women now own around 39% of businesses in the U.S., employing 12.2 million workers, and generating $2.7 trillion in revenue. "The impact that women-owned businesses make on the economy is undeniable," Wells Fargo Women's Segment Lead for Small Business Val Jones said in a press release about the study. "Even more impressive is that growth in women entrepreneurship — whether it was their workforce or revenue — grew during an extremely difficult time." Wells Fargo reports that half of all women-owned businesses operate in four areas: Professional services, administrative support, health and wellness, and "other services." Female entrepreneurs fared especially well on this side of the Covid pandemic, with women of color making notable strides in their business endeavors. Here are some additional takeaways from the Wells Fargo report:

• During the onset of the pandemic in 2020, despite business closures, women launched more businesses than they closed, while the number of men-owned businesses declined. Women-owned businesses also grew their workforces and increased their revenue while men's numbers shrank.
• From 2019 to 2023, women-owned businesses' growth rate outpaced the rate of men's 94.3% for number of firms, 252.8% for employment, and 82.0% for revenue.
• During the pandemic, women-owned businesses added 1.4 million jobs and $579.6 billion in revenue to the economy.
• Nearly half a million women-owned businesses with revenues between $250,000 and $999,999 grew their aggregate revenues by about 30%, illustrating their ambition, grit, and readiness to cross the $1 million revenue threshold.

The slideshow above illustrates the U.S. states that are most favorable for women in business, as compiled by the digital-business consultants at Wix.com. Researchers took into account the percentage of women in each state that hold management positions versus the percentage of men in company leadership roles. They also looked at the total number of companies in each state, and the business survival there. Wix.com crunched all of these numbers to determine a final score between one and 10 in order to rank the states that are most hospitable to female business leaders and entrepreneurs. See also:

• Success tips for female leaders in risk management
• Gender disparity evident in agency leadership, compensation
• Narrowing the leadership divide for women in insurance
• How women insurance leaders can topple the gender gap