Best Markets For Women In Business

This article relates to women business owners and executives of corporations not work at home mom’s per se, but it’s worth considering. They may be more friendly to work at home moms who are virtual assistants or other home based staff. By “market” it refers to a geographical business market, not a field of specialization or type of business.

The common denominators mentioned by the researchers were a booming business market that, preferably, were not factory based, high education levels, and a sense of entrepreneurship within the economy.

Another thing mentioned in passing was the high cost of living. Places where every adult in the household needs to work to keep the household “afloat” give more opportunities for everyone to work out of sheer necessity.

Read it all at  BizJournals.com 

The San Francisco Bay area emerged as the clear national leader. The mix of industries in the San Francisco-Oakland area has made it possible for women to do extremely well, says Tucker Hart Adams, president of The Adams Group Inc., a Colorado Springs economic-research firm.

“Instead of heavy manufacturing, San Francisco has a lot of technology-related and service-related businesses,” she says. “And it’s a fact that you tend to find more women going into technology and the services, not steel plants. It also helps that San Francisco has a very supportive network for women in business. Instead of the good-old-boys network, it’s a good-old-girls network.”

San Francisco-Oakland is the only market to rank among the three national leaders in three of the study’s key categories: the percentage of women who hold bachelor’s degrees, the number of woman-owned businesses per 10,000 residents, and the share of female employees with salaries of $100,000 or more.

Second place belongs to Washington, reflecting the impressive education levels of its female residents. Forty-four percent of Washington’s women have bachelor’s degrees, and 19 percent hold advanced degrees. Both figures lead the nation.

America’s two largest metros — New York City and Los Angeles — rank as the third- and fourth-best markets for women in business. One possible explanation, says Adams, is that the economic conditions in those sprawling areas give female executives extra inspiration to succeed.

“It’s harder to be a one-income family in places such as New York or Los Angeles,” she says. “They’re so expensive that to live there, you probably have to have every adult in the household working.”