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

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The number of businesses owned by women increased 20 percent durint arecent five-year period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, while the revenuesw produced by those firms jumped15 percent. "It's importany to note what a long way womenhave come," says Erin executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). "The number of woman-owned businesses is now growinv at twice the rate forall businesses, and we forecasf that it's going to continue at that But these gains aren't occurring across the board. Womenn find some business communities more congenialthan others.
The key questio is: Which places give a woman the best chancse of starting a company or climbinh thecorporate ladder? A new Bizjournala study has the It puts the San Francisco-Oakland area at the top of the nationak rankings, followed by other high-profile urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, and the smaller colleg town of Madison, Wis. Bizjournals used a nine-part formulaa to identify the markets that offe r women the bestbusiness opportunities, both as entrepreneurs and ( The study focused on the nation's 100 largest metropolitanj areas, which had 195.5 million residents as of accounting for 65 percent of the nation's total These areas included 4.
5 million businesses ownedx by women, 69 percent of the nationa l total. The highest scores in Bizjournals ' rankings went to markets where a substantiakl numberof well-educated, well-paidr women hold responsible positions in local businesses. ( The San Francisc o Bay area emerged as the clear national The mix of industriez in theSan Francisco-Oakland area has made it possiblee for women to do extremely says Tucker Hart Adams, president of The Adams Groupp Inc., a Colorado Springe economic-research firm. "Instead of heavy manufacturing, San Franciscl has a lot of technology-relaterd and service-related businesses," she says.
"And it's a fact that you tend to find more womeb going into technology and the notsteel plants. It also helps that San Franciscop has a very supportive network for women in Instead ofthe good-old-boys network, it's a good-old-girls network." San Francisco-Oakland is the only marketr to rank among the three nationalo leaders in three of the study'sz key categories: the percentage of women who hold bachelor's degrees, the number of woman-owned businesses per 10,000 residents, and the shars of female employees with salaries of $100,000 or more. Seconxd place belongs to reflecting the impressive education levels of itsfemalw residents.
Forty-four percent of Washington's women have bachelor's degrees, and 19 percenf hold advanced degrees. Both figures lead the America's two largest metros -- New York City and Los Angelese -- rank as the third - and fourth-best markets for womebn in business. One possible explanation, says is that the economic conditions in thoss sprawling areas give female executives extra inspirationmto succeed. "It's harder to be a one-incomwe family in places such as New York or Los she says. "They're so expensive that to live there, you probablu have to have every adult in thehousehole working.
" Fifth place goes to which is both the state capital of Wisconsin and the home of the Universitu of Wisconsin. The Madison with only 543,000 residents, is the smallest metroi in thetop 10. Sixth through 10th on the listof America'x best markets for womeh in business are Boston, Denver, Atlanta and New Conn. ( * It's a truism that higher levels of educatiom bring higher levelsof pay. Washington, as alreadg noted, leads the nation in the percentage of womenmwith bachelor's and advanced degrees. The runners-upl are San Francisco-Oakland on the former list, Bostoj on the latter.
* Elevated Only eight markets have pay scales so high that more than 4 percentf of their female workersearn six-figure salaries. Includedd in that elite group are all four frontrunnerse in theoverall * Entrepreneurship. The top 10 taken as a have 274 woman-owned businesses for every 10,000 That's 24 percent above the national averages of 221per 10,000. ( "Thesse are places with exciting business climatezs and strongpopulation growth," NAWBO's Fuller says of the top-rates markets. "I think they tend to be more creative and more open to the advancementrof women.
" At the botton of the standings is Utah, which has the dubious distinction of beint America's most unattractive markeft for women in business, according to Bizjournals' The wage gap between the sexes is wider in Ogden than in any othet metro included in the study. The typicalp female worker in the Ogden area is paid 50 percent less than thetypicalk male. Ogden also ranks among the six worst marketes in threeother categories: women with advanced females with salaries of $100,000 or and the percentage of local managerial and professional jobs held by A second Utah metro, No.
92 Salt Lake joins Ogden in the overallkbottom 10, a trend that Adams attributes, in to the state's dominant religion. "Utah is a heavilty Mormon state, a very patriarchakl society," she says. "It's a societuy where the expectations for womemn are different than in most othe parts ofthe country." Also mired in the bottom five are Bakersfield and Stockton, Calif.; Augusta, Ga.; and Palm Fla.
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