Women Say Work-Life Balance Is Achievable
Despite Some Challenges
The rules of business are changing, and women entrepreneurs are
at the forefront of the transformation, according to the 2017 Bank
of America Women Business Owner Spotlight, an annual study of more
than 1,000 small business owners.
Women in the small business community see gender equality in the
workplace on the horizon, as the study found that women
entrepreneurs envision significant strides for women in the
workforce over the next 20 years, with a majority believing that
women will match or exceed men in a number of areas:
- Eighty percent of female entrepreneurs
foresee greater or equal representation of women in STEM (science,
technology, engineering, math) fields compared to men in STEM.
- Sixty-eight percent believe women will
match or exceed men in executive leadership or C-suite role
representation.
- Sixty-six percent believe there will be
more women-owned small businesses compared to those owned by
men.
- Sixty-one percent of women believe
their wages will be equal to or greater than those of men.
Women entrepreneurs also believe there will be greater support
for state-enacted paid maternity leave policies over the next 20
years. Seventy-one percent of women business owners believe that at
least 25 states will have such a policy within the next two
decades. As of August 2017, five states and the District of
Columbia have a paid maternity leave policy in place or planned to
take effect.
“Women entrepreneurs have articulated an inspiring vision for
the small business community over the next 20 years – one of equal
pay, leadership opportunities and greater support for those with
families,” said Sharon Miller, managing director, head of Small
Business, Bank of America. “Within the context of a growing
economy, this bodes incredibly well for the future of women in
business.”
Women business owners report work-life balance, though still
lag behind men
While 61 percent of women small business owners report working
more than 40 hours each week, 78 percent believe they have managed
to find good balance between their work and home lives, though they
still trail men by 7 percentage points (85 percent).
Overall, women mostly feel positive about their work, primarily
using words such as “interesting” (52 percent), “fulfilling” (48
percent) and “enjoyable” (46 percent) to describe the average work
week. Still, a sizable number also say an average week is
“demanding” (46 percent) and “stressful” (33 percent), and more
than one in five say it’s “exhausting” – 8 percentage points higher
than men (13 percent). Despite this, a majority report success in
preventing work from interfering in their personal life, with 64
percent of women saying their role as a business owner does not
regularly cause tension in their personal relationships, identical
to their male counterparts.
Women are increasingly upbeat about the economy, though
taking a wait-and-see approach on revenue, growth and
hiring
Women small business owners have shown significant increases in
optimism toward the economy improving in the year ahead – including
confidence in their local economy (45 percent in 2017 vs. 37
percent in 2016), the national economy (44 percent in 2017 vs. 25
percent in 2016) and the global economy (32 percent in 2017 vs. 16
percent in 2016). Even with women entrepreneurs’ robust economic
outlook, male small business owners are more optimistic that the
local (54 percent), national (58 percent) and global (37 percent)
economies will improve over the next 12 months.
Despite a substantial boost in economic confidence, the number
of women small business owners who plan to grow their business over
the next five years has declined (54 percent in 2017 vs. 60 percent
in 2016), as has the number of women anticipating a revenue
increase over the next 12 months (44 percent in 2017 vs. 54 percent
in 2016). Nineteen percent of women entrepreneurs plan to hire in
the year ahead, on par with 2016. Regarding their business outlook,
women were largely in line with their male counterparts in terms of
hiring (17 percent) and long-term growth (57 percent) plans, as
well as revenue expectations (51 percent).
Economic concerns overall drop, while health care costs
remain top worry
In addition to greater confidence in the overall economy, women
entrepreneurs’ positive outlook was also reflected by a drop in
concern over a number of economic factors. When asked about
potential economic concerns over the next 12 months, less than half
expressed worry over:
- Consumer spending (49 percent)
- Corporate tax rates (45 percent)
- Strength of the U.S. dollar (44
percent)
- Commodities prices (42 percent)
- Compliance with government regulation
(41 percent)
- A minimum wage increase (30
percent)
Even the cost of health care, which consistently ranks as the
top economic concern, fell to 68 percent from 74 percent one year
earlier.
Bank of America Business Advantage Women Business Owner
SpotlightGfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications conducted
the Bank of America Women Business Owner Spotlight survey in the
spring of 2017 online between February 21 and March 19, 2017 using
a pre-recruited online sample of small business owners. GfK
contacted a national sample of 1,022 small business owners, of
which 375 were women, in the United States with annual revenue
between $100,000 and $4,999,999 and employing between 2 and 99
employees.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170830005017/en/
Reporters May Contact:Don Vecchiarello, Bank of America,
1.980.387.4899don.vecchiarello@bankofamerica.com
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