The Franchise King, Joel Libava, has an interesting post on Small Business Trends asking Why Aren’t Women Interested in Franchise Ownership? Joel says it’s all in the numbers. According to Joel, about 25 percent of franchises are owned by women.

Joel references a book by Iain Murray that says women often have excellent qualities that allow them to become successful franchise operators:

• Women are good at organizing, at coordinating activities and people efficiently. This means women franchisees will be naturally inclined to organize and coordinate their franchise opportunity more productively and profitably.
• Women are good at prioritizing, at deciding which activities are more important than others. This particular skill works well in the franchising industry, when problems arise concerning planning, staffing, financing and people management.

According to my own unscientific experience this year, I’d say women owned franchise ownership is on the rise. I haven’t kept exact statistics, but 3 out of the last 4 franchise reviews I’ve performed have been for women and I would say the number of women I performed reviews for this year is at  least equal in number to men. Of course, Iowa is always a little ahead of the curve.