Recent research on women business owners de-emphasizes home-based business ownership, despite the fact that homebased ownership is on the rise. This study uses data from the Upstate New York Small Business Project to compare women engaged in home-based businesses to their counterparts, who locate their businesses outside the home. The results indicate that the women engaged in home-based business ownership experience less work to family conflict than their counterparts. Yet their businesses enjoy less economic success than those run by their non-home-based counterparts. This suggests that homebased ownership may be a good option only for women who do not have strong financial needs.

Scholarly interest in women’s business ownership has increased, but few studies offer theoretically‐based explanations for the racial differences observed among women entrepreneurs. This paper seeks to remedy this oversight by applying several theories of entrepreneurship to a comparative study of white and minority women. An analysis of survey data from upstate New York shows that these theories can explain why racial differences in women’s business ownership exist. In particular, the theories shed light on these differences by calling attention to a gap between the high aspirations of minority women for business ownership and the paucity of formal entrepreneurial resources that are available to these women (e.g. financial capital and human capital).

This article begins with a look at women employment over the years and the historical place of women entrepreneurship in today’s economy. It continues by analyzing data statistically on women entrepreneurs in the United States across racial lines, with a particular focus on Hispanic women entrepreneurs. The article ends by examining the critical issues that are important for women entrepreneurs in today’s environment as well as the future implications of these issues.

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A number of significant research projects have explored various aspects of social entrepreneurship, some demonstrating that, given an appropriate level of focus, social entrepreneurship is a viable area for research that can be studied and explored like its counterpart and predecessor, general entrepreneurship. This paper offers a true definition of social entrepreneurship by relating it to three key measures from general entrepreneurship: human capital, network structure, and financial capital. The current status of social entrepreneurship is also examined and summarized.