Women founded 44% of new businesses in 2025. The real reasons, and the question to ask before you join them.
In 2025, according to Forbes as passed along by Black Enterprise, 44% of new businesses were founded by women, compared with 29% in 2019. Only six years back, a woman led fewer than three of every ten new firms. That proportion now sits just under one half.
Why this figure leaves people so taken aback
Starting a company is often pictured as a young person's game: a hooded sweatshirt, a garage, a founder with no management history. The women driving this number largely fall outside that picture. In the Black Enterprise article, the spotlight falls on experienced women in their middle careers who are stepping away from corporate roles. Many of them have run a profit and loss statement, heard the "we need steady leadership" line more times than they can count, and chosen to build something carrying their own name.
Origins of the statistic and what it cannot tell us
Forbes first reported the data, and Black Enterprise then reprinted it. "New businesses" covers a lot of ground, from a consultant who registered one client on a Tuesday afternoon to a funded firm with a full payroll. The count only captures when new ventures begin, not how they end. It does not reveal how many of those companies last three years, what their founders take home, or whether those founders are happier than they were in their old offices. Treat it as evidence of momentum rather than a guarantee of success. A move from 29% to 44% in six years signals that more women now believe they are allowed to try.
Try imagining it from where you stand right now.
You are 52 and run operations for a company headquartered in the Salt Lake Valley. The latest reorganization put your two strongest directors under a peer, and your manager described it as "streamlining." Over the past year, three former colleagues have reached out with the same question: could you do for them what you did there, for a fee? You turned them down each time because you had a paycheck. Recently, a question has crept in for you in a place like Draper or Murray: is the salary really the sole reason you stay put?
What this means for your life here
People usually assume these women were forced out, and a few certainly were. The figure points to something more practical, though. The women who depart are leaving with an asset they can take to market. Two decades of leading teams, managing budgets and handling vendors amounts to a marketable skill set, and no one has to approve your value before the market recognizes it. Launching a business is not a booby prize for a promotion that never arrived. It is what happens when a promotion stops being the only route to payment for what you know.
The colleagues who once competed with you for the next title can become your clients, partners and referrals. The network of contacts you developed while leading teams is what you can truly count on. They do not disappear when you leave, and they do not belong only to a founder in a sweatshirt. They belong to you.
Actions worth completing ahead of any move
Avoid quitting your job just to learn whether clients will pay for your work. Find out first. Reach out to two contacts who have already expressed interest and ask them: "If I were available in January, what would you want done, and what budget would you set aside for it?" Buyers who are serious will reply with a clear scope of work and a dollar amount. Polite admirers say "let's definitely talk." Secure two real buyers before you hand in your notice, and ideally get one of them to sign something.
After that, consider the answer that the 44% figure has already given you. Suppose your present employer were a customer instead of the company paying you, would you choose to keep that account?