Commissioned by the National Women’s Business Council and prepared by Premier Quantitative Consulting, Inc., Millennial Women: The Future of Entrepreneurship in America examines the millennial entrepreneurial population, specifically focusing on women, through three key parts: a discussion of current themes surrounding millennial entrepreneurs, an analysis of data to develop a profile of the millennial entrepreneur, as well as recommendations for future areas of investigation.

The first section presents diverging points of view on the status and future of millennial women business owners. The media portrays millennials as transforming the economy and spurning traditional forms of employment. However, literature shows that millennial entrepreneurs are actually on the decline; this is also supported by the Council’s research. The paper suggests that rising student debt could be having an adverse effect on entrepreneurship rates for millennials. The research identifies theories on generational challenges and those that may be unique to millennials.

The latter half of the paper uses 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS) and the 2012 Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons (SBO) to understand the demographic, social, and financial characteristics of millennial women, identifying those who are entrepreneurs already and providing comparisons to men and women of prior generations.