Woman-led businesses in Massachusetts are outpacing state and national growth averages, and are less concentrated in lifestyle or retail sectors than their national counterparts, according to a report unveiled today by Babson College and the nonprofit Commonwealth Institute. Indeed, female-helmed firms are particularly well represented in tech and life sciences industries.
The report is based on data from the sixth year of an annual survey of firms with female chief executives. “Woman-run companies have consistently outpaced the local and national growth rates for the six years of our study despite the economic conditions,” said study co-author I. Elaine Allen, Associate Professor of Statistics & Entrepreneurship at Babson College, in a press release. In 2006, over 60 percent of the firms grew by more than five percent; the average for all firms in Massachusetts was 3.3 percent, and the national average was 3.1 percent. Still, woman-led firms comprise just 2.7 percent of Massachusetts’ total.
Another point highlighted in the study is that Massachusetts’ women-led companies buck the national trend of focusing mainly in retail and real estate. Rather, they are most heavily represented in professional services (38 percent), high tech (9.8 percent), construction (8.5 percent), travel and leisure (7.8 percent), and health care, pharmaceuticals, and medical products (7.2 percent). Indeed, two of the top 5 women-run Massachusetts firms are in technology industries:
| Company | Chief Executive | Revenue ($ millions) | Employees | Industry |
| Cumberland Farms | Lily Bentas, Chairman and CEO | 6,000.0 | 9,000 | Convenience stores and gasoline retailing |
| AGAR Supply | Karen Bressler, CEO | 485.0 | 370 | Food products supplier |
| Millennium Pharmaceuticals | Deborah Dunsire, President and CEO | 480.0 | 1,200 | Biopharmaceuticals |
| Axcelis Technologies | Mary Puma, Chairman and CEO | 462.0 | 1,600 | Semiconductor equipment |
| Garber Travel | Roz Garber, President and CEO | 417.0 | 332 | Travel agency |
The full list of the top 100 woman-led businesses is here.
