WASHINGTON -- Self-employed women differ from their wage and salary earning counterparts in several human capital areas. Most notably, self-employed women tend to be older, are better educated, and have more managerial experience than wage and salary earners. These findings are contained in a report, Human Capital and Women's Business Ownership, released by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"Human capital factors such as education and experience have long been known to have a positive correlation with entrepreneurship," said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy. "This report delves deeper into women's business ownership and shows that factors such as occupational skills and entrepreneurial preparedness are essential to women's entrepreneurship."

The report, written by Business Development Advisors with funding from the Office of Advocacy, also compares human capital factors of self-employed women and men, as well as between self-employed whites and minorities. The authors presented the report during the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Baltimore on April 26, 2008.

Comparing self-employed women to other working women, the authors found that:

-- Self-employed women have greater educational attainment.
-- Self-employed women are more likely to be in managerial occupations.
-- Self-employed women are more likely to work in non-traditional
occupations.
-- Self-employed women are likely to be older.