The SBA released a fascinating research paper this month on women-owned business.

Some fun facts:
In 2002, women owned 6.5 million or 28.2 percent of nonfarm U.S. firms. More than 14 percent of these women-owned firms were employers, with 7.1 million workers and $173.7 billion in annual payroll.
Between 1997 and 2002, the numbers of women-owned firms overall increased by 19.8 percent and of women-owned employer firms, by 8.3 percent.
By state, the largest increases in the number of women-owned firms were in Nevada (43 percent), and the biggest loser was Kansas (-8.2 percent).