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.