Rice Business Report May 2019 Rice Business Report | Page 32

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Women Managers Leaving Corporations for Entrepreneurship
By Susan West
Increasingly, women managers are choosing to "opt out" when corporations fail to meet
their professional needs. Opting out--the latest catch phrase within corporate circles--
describes the growing trend of leaving corporate positions for alternative career paths
A significant number of women managers are leaving large companies to start their own businesses. In
fact,
women are quitting corporate jobs in favor of entrepreneurship at twice the rate of men, making a sig-
nificant impact on the traditional and online marketplace, according to Cheskin Research, a California-
based strategic market research and consulting company.
Recent research indicates interesting trends for women entrepreneurs. According to the Center for
Women's Business research, the number of women-owned U.S. businesses grew at twice the rate of all
firms between 1997 and 2002. And the U.S. Small Business Administration reports that women-owned
businesses account for 28 percent of all privately-owned companies. They employ 9.2 million people and
contribute $2.38 trillion in revenue to the U.S. economy. Continued on page 41…..
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