The 2025 Impact of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by Wells Fargo, explores women’s entrepreneurship and the barriers they face, particularly for women of color. It highlights concrete steps taken by the government, corporations, philanthropists, and support organizations to dismantle these barriers while identifying areas for further action.

The entrepreneurial landscape in the U.S. has undergone a profound transformation in the wake of the pandemic. The surge in business formations, particularly among women-owned businesses, has been extraordinary.

The 2024 Wells Fargo Impact of Women-Owned Businesses—an inaugural report—chronicles the impact of COVID-19 on US businesses and how it opened opportunities for women. It highlights the growth of women-owned businesses from 2019 to 2023, especially those owned by women of color, and explores the intersection of gender with race, business size, industry, and geography.

Ernst & Young LLP (EY US), the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE), Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) — discussed the need to transform the narrative of the full value associated with women-owned and founded businesses. Through this survey and working groups, EY surfaced seven key learnings about WBEs and WOSBs that paint a clear picture of this group’s ability to not only drive transformational change, but to do so in a way that fundamentally helps build a world that works better.