In addition to the September 11 anniversary, National Staffing Employee Week and, arguably, Talk Like a Pirate Day, September has an additional holiday that can apply to staffing: American Business Women’s Day, which is celebrated every year on September 22—today.
The holiday marks the founding of the American Business Women’s Association, which was actually founded by a man (named Hilary, no less): businessman Hilary A. Bufton Jr. founded the association in 1949 with three businesswomen to honor and support the contribution to the business world that women had made during World War II, and to encourage them to keep contributing.
It’s a little tough to get exact statistics for the staffing industry, but according to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners by the U.S. Census, of the 14,376 staffing firms in the nation, 4,572 were owned by women (32%) while 6,905 were owned by men (48%). The other 20% were either co-owned by women and men or didn’t report the owner’s gender.
Now, 32% might not sound like a lot, but considering that overall, women own only 20.7% of the nonfarm businesses in the U.S., according to the National Women’s Business Council, it’s actually really impressive.
So today, COATS Staffing Software salutes all the women who own, operate or work in staffing firms. Happy American Business Women’s Day!