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

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The number of businesses owned by womemn increased 20 percent during arecent five-yeadr period, according to the U.S. Censuss Bureau, while the revenues produced by those firms jumpedc15 percent. "It's important to note what a long way womenjhave come," says Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Associationb of Women Business Owners "The number of woman-owned businesses is now growing at twicer the rate for all businesses, and we forecast that it's going to continue at that But these gains aren't occurring across the board. Womenb find some business communities more congenialthan others.
The key questiohn is: Which places give a woma n the best chance of startint a company or climbing thecorporatwe ladder? A new Bizjournals study has the answer. It puts the San Francisco-Oaklanrd area at the top of the national followed byother high-profile urban centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, and the smaller colleged town of Madison, Wis. Bizjournals used a nine-part formula to identify the markets that offer women the bestbusinesas opportunities, both as entrepreneurws and employees. ( The study focused on the nation'd 100 largest metropolitan areas, which had 195.5 million residentas as of mid-2006, accounting for 65 percent ofthe nation's total population.
These areasa included 4.5 million businesses owned by 69 percent of the national The highest scoresin Bizjournals' rankings went to markets where a substantiap number of well-educated, well-paid women hold responsibles positions in local businesses. ( The San Francisco Bay area emergede as the clearnational leader. The mix of industries in the San Francisco-Oakland area has made it possible for women to doextremelyt well, says Tucker Hart Adams, president of The Adama Group Inc., a Colorado Springs economic-research firm. "Insteae of heavy manufacturing, San Francisco has a lot of technology-relatexd and service-related businesses," she says.
"And it's a fact that you tend to find more womenb going into technology andthe services, not steel It also helps that San Francisco has a very supportive networi for women in Instead of the good-old-boys network, it's a good-old-girlx network." San Francisco-Oakland is the only marke to rank among the three national leader s in three of the study's key the percentage of women who hold bachelor'sz degrees, the number of woman-owner businesses per 10,000 residents, and the sharde of female employees with salaries of $100,00p0 or more. Second place belongas to Washington, reflecting the impressive education leveld of itsfemale residents.
Forty-four percent of Washington'ds women have bachelor's degrees, and 19 percent hold advanced degrees. Both figures lead the America's two largest metros -- New York City and Los Angelesd -- rank as the third- and fourth-best marketsw for women in business. One possible says Adams, is that the economic conditions in those sprawling areas give female executives extra inspiratiojnto succeed. "It's harder to be a one-income famil y in places such as New York orLos Angeles," she "They're so expensive that to live there, you probabl have to have every adult in the household working.
" Fifth place goes to Madison, whic is both the statwe capital of Wisconsin and the home of the Universit y of Wisconsin. The Madisonm area, with only 543,000 is the smallest metro in thetop 10. Sixtn through 10th on the listof America's best marketss for women in business are Boston, Denver, Atlanta and New Conn. ( * Education. It's a truismj that higher levels of educationb bring higher levelsof pay. as already noted, leads the nation in the percentage of womenwith bachelor's and advanceds degrees. The runners-up are San Francisco-Oakland on the former Boston onthe latter. * Elevated salaries.
Only eight marketxs have pay scales so high that more than 4 percentt of their female workersearn six-figurwe salaries. Included in that elite group are all four frontrunnersw in theoverall rankings. * Entrepreneurship. The top 10 taken as a group, have 274 woman-owned businesses for every 10,00o residents. That's 24 percent above the national average of 221per ( "These are placee with exciting business climates and strong populatioh growth," NAWBO's Fuller says of the top-rated markets. "I thin k they tend to be more creative and more open to the advancementyof women.
" At the bottom of the standings is Utah, which has the dubious distinction of beinfg America's most unattractive market for women in according to Bizjournals' formula. The wage gap betweeb the sexes is wider in Ogden than in any otheer metro included inthe study. The typica female worker in the Ogden area is paid 50 percent less than thetypicao male. Ogden also ranks amongv the six worst markets in three other women withadvanced degrees, females with salaries of $100,000 or more, and the percentage of localp managerial and professional jobs held by A second Utah metro, No.
92 Salt Lake joins Ogden in the overallbottom 10, a trene that Adams attributes, in part, to the state'sz dominant religion. "Utah is a heavily Mormon state, a very patriarchao society," she says. "It's a society where the expectationss for women are different than in most otherd parts ofthe country." Also miree in the bottom five are Bakersfield and Stockton, Calif.; Ga.; and Palm Bay-Melbourne, Fla.
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