PRATTVILLE, Ala. — According to a study by GoodCall.com, an online data-science group, two Alabama cities were ranked among the top 100 in the country for women entrepreneurs.
Prattville came in the top 50 at #46, while Auburn rounded out Alabama’s other spot on the list at #67.
GoodCall considered professional networking opportunities, business climate, educational attainment of men vs. women, economic health, and the percentage of businesses owned by women in compiling the ranking, analyzing 405 U.S. cities to discover which areas provide the best support for female entrepreneurs and which cities provide the worst.
Other Alabama cities on the list were Huntsville (#111), Athens (#206), Phenix City (#272), Bessemer (#371), Dothan (#364), and Gadsden (#398).
Notably, several of Alabama’s largest cities, including Birmingham, Mobile, and Tuscaloosa, are absent from the list.
Nationwide, women own approximately 30 percent of businesses, but those companies only employ around 6 percent of the workforce.
According to GoodCall, women in many different industries are trying to change this – female entrepreneurship is growing faster than ever. And there are areas of the country where women-owned businesses are standing out and performing better than others, particularly in small and medium-sized cities.
Another key to increasing the number of female entrepreneurs and business owners may be the radical shift in the number of women going to college. For the last decade, the ratio of men to women in degree-granting institutions has moved dramatically in favor of women. Around 57 percent of students at colleges are now female.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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