Key takeaways

• Women founded 49% of all new businesses in 2024, marking the highest rate in the past five years.
• In June 2025, total new business applications were up 20% year over year, continuing a strong post-pandemic trend.
• Women now make up nearly half of angel investors, and 46% of businesses seeking angel capital are women-owned.

New business data reflects a growing desire among women to build wealth on their own terms through entrepreneurship.

Women are in their entrepreneur era, becoming their own boss at unprecedented rates. In 2024, female entrepreneurs started 49% of all new businesses — a 69% increase from 2019, and the highest rate in the past five years.¹ The surge is part of a broader boom in new business formation: Over half of all new businesses made a profit last year, and overall application numbers remained elevated.²

If current trends continue, 2025 could go even further. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, new business applications were up 20% in June 2025 compared to June 2024, suggesting strong and sustained momentum heading into the second half of the year.³

Empower research finds that nearly half of women (46%) cite financial independence as core to happiness, and 68% highlight living debt‑free — values that align closely with the reasons many women are turning to entrepreneurship as a path to greater control over their financial futures.

From side hustle to full-time founder

Not every trend is on the rise. As more employers push for return-to-office policies, side hustles are slowing In 2024, only 35% of new businesses were side hustles — down from 45% in 2023.⁴ For many aspiring entrepreneurs, being physically present at the office has limited the time and flexibility to build businesses on the side. Instead, more are making the leap into full-time entrepreneurship.

Women funding women

Women are giving new meaning to the phrase “a girl’s girl.” Across industries, they’re funding, mentoring, and championing one another. Women-owned businesses account for 46% of firms seeking angel capital and more women are stepping in to meet that demand: Nearly half of angel investors are now women, signaling a powerful shift in financial influence.⁵ That influence is only expected to grow, with women set to inherit $34 trillion in assets through the Great Wealth Transfer.

Read more: The $34 trillion shift: How women are reshaping wealth and legacy

Sisterhood as strategy

Still, access to capital — and knowledge — is not always equitable. Anu Duggal, founding partner of the Female Founders Fund, reported she once took 700 meetings to secure $5.85 million in funding — a stark example of the barriers still common even for women launching VC firms.⁶ Meanwhile, a new study from the University of Colorado found that female entrepreneurs still face hidden barriers, especially when it comes to tapping into mentorship and peer support — resources that are often informal and shaped by long-standing male-dominated circles.⁷

Read more: How mentorship can recharge careers and finances

Innovators like Daniella Pierson are creating alternative solutions. Her platform CHASM offers female entrepreneurs free access to pitch decks, legal workshops, and even grants — funded through an invite-only membership model — to bridge the gaps typically closed off to women without legacy networks.⁸ These initiatives are critical steps in making entrepreneurship accessible and inclusive, and big names are following suit. In May, the Tory Burch Foundation pledged $1 billion in support of women entrepreneurs by 2030.⁹ The move comes at a time when only 4.2% of women-owned businesses in the U.S. surpass $1 million in annual revenue; among Tory Burch Foundation fellows, that number rises to 42%.¹⁰

Breaking barriers in the workplace

The entrepreneurial rise isn’t happening in isolation. Women are making parallel strides in traditional workplaces, gaining ground in leadership and professional roles. The number of women running Fortune 500 companies hit a new high this year, with 55 women CEOs leading the nation's biggest firms by revenue.¹¹ According to new data from the Pew Research Center, 46% of all U.S. managers were women in 2023, up from 29% in 1980.¹² Women are now filling 38% of majority-male professional jobs — such as computer scientists, physicians, and lawyers — up from 23% in 1980.