BLS Monthly Labor Review – October 2014: “This article uses data from the Current Population Survey to examine changes in the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of self-employed women over the 1993–2012 period. The analysis suggests that these female workers, who represented about one-third of all self-employed individuals in 2012, have weathered recessions relatively well and made considerable strides in educational attainment and earnings. In addition, they have become more diverse in terms of race, family characteristics, and health status. After seeing considerable increases in the 1970s and the 1980s, the share of women in self-employment and the female self-employment rate leveled off in the 1990s and remained relatively unchanged through 2012. While this recent 20-year trend may not be remarkable, the characteristics of female business owners have changed considerably over time. The majority of empirical research on self-employed workers either analyzes self-employed men and women together, as a similar “type” of worker, or simply omits women from the study of self-employment.¹ By contrast, the present article uses the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine changes and trends in the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of self-employed women from 1993 to 2012. It finds that these female workers continue to be a unique labor market group deserving separate treatment in analysis.”