Women Lose More Ground in U.S. Small Business Contracts Race

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/women-lose-more-ground-than-men-in-small-business-awards-race.html

U.S. government contracts to women- owned small businesses dropped for the second consecutive year, declining at a faster rate than awards to their male counterparts.

The women’s contracts slid 5.5 percent to about $16.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 from $17.3 billion in fiscal 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Awards to small firms owned by men fell 4.1 percent to $80.9 billion.

The gender gap may reflect stiffer competition over a shrinking pool of contract revenue as well as the bureaucratic burdens associated with a new effort to reserve awards for women-owned firms, according to former procurement officials and small business advocates.

“Women-owned small businesses are at the very bottom of the food chain,” said Jeanne Peck, chief executive officer of Nash Locke LLC, an information technology company based in McLean, Virginia. “They often have to fight for the scraps of subcontracts.”