In part 1 of the Women in Business and Entrepreneurship Series, I discussed my personal experience as a woman entrepreneur. There are many misconceptions about women entrepreneurs so in part 2 I’m sorting through the facts.

More and more women are embracing entrepreneurship and succeeding. A study by the Center for Women’s Business Research shows that women now own 40 percent of private firms. That’s 10 times more businesses than women owned 30 years ago.

Young women and moms are two of the fastest growing demographics of entrepreneurs and overall, women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men. These numbers, however, do not mean we will see equal proportions of men and women running large firms anytime soon. Only one in five businesses with revenue over the $1 million mark are owned by women. In fact, a Kauffman Foundation study on business and gender shows women are outperformed by men in many areas of business.

The following chart shows that women-owned businesses only take in about half the revenue and profit that male-owned businesses take in:

The reason why women do not perform at the same level as men is likely because women start businesses for different reasons than men -not because women aren’t capable of achieving at the same level.

Women are more likely to start small, home-based businesses. Women want more freedom and opportunity than the corporate world provides. Women with children start businesses because they want the flexibility of designing a work schedule that balances business and family. In the constant struggle to find balance, many challenges arise for women.

We’ll look at the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in part 3 of the Women in Business and Entrepreneurship Series.

What do you think about the growing number of women business owners? Why do you think male-owned businesses are outperforming women-owned businesses?