148 CLEARING THE HURDLES: WOMEN BUILDING HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESSES
On the other hand, women are later entrants into the game.
Women’s entrepreneurship is a comparatively new phenomenon. Their
firms are younger and generally at an earlier stage of development. The
fact is that younger firms, whether owned by a man or woman, are
faster growing than their older counterparts, have higher revenues, and
employ more workers. Of these, about 44% of women owners of high-
growth firms are under 45 years of age, compared to only 26% of non-
high-growth women owners. Women-owned firms started or acquired
in the last 10 years have reached the same revenue and employment
distributions as those owned by women for more than 10 years; in fact,
more than 20 years. The younger ...