Female entrepreneurship boom

Business Week reports :

Female entrepreneurs may once have lagged behind their male counterparts, but now they're making up for lost time. Business ownership among women in general is growing at nearly twice the rate (17%) as all businesses (9%), according to a new report released this month by the Center for Women's Business Research. And the number of businesses owned by minority women, long the smallest segment of entrepreneurship in the U.S., is growing at six times the rate of all private companies, the study found.

Why the change? "First and foremost, women who want to start a business are seeing others who are doing it, and they think, 'Wow, I can do this too,'" says Sharon Hadary, the center's executive director.

The steady proliferation of capital and institutional resources has also helped make entrepreneurship a more viable option for women, allowing them more control from a professional -- and personal –- standpoint....