Biography of female entrepreneurs bio

Women who organize and manage an enterprise

Female entrepreneurs are women who organize and manage an enterprise, particularly a business.^[1] Female entrepreneurship has steadily increased in the United States during the 20th and 21st century, with number of female owned businesses increasing at a rate of 5% since 1997.^[2][3] This growth has led to the rise of wealthy self-made females such as Coco Chanel, Diane Hendricks, Meg Whitman, and Oprah Winfrey.^[4]

History

The first female-owned business in the United States is recorded in 1739 when Eliza Lucas Pinckney took over her family's plantations in South Carolina when she was 16 years old.^[5] In the 18th and 19th centuries, women operated small businesses that they attained from inheritance or to supplement their income.

In many cases, they were trying to avoid poverty or were replacing the income from the loss of a spouse. At that time, the ventur