Women in Franchising Facts

By: Multi-Unit Franchisee
Published: December 29th, 2015

Franchise Business Review routinely collects franchise market research and data covering areas such as franchisee satisfaction and franchise buyer experiences. They have a wide array of data and insight into the world of franchising. We asked them to provide some general research and statistics on women in franchising.

How female franchisees view themselves overall and within specific sectors

• 70% of female franchisees chose "agree" or "strongly agree" in response to feeling like a valued member of the organization.
• The highest marks for this question among women were given in the sectors of Sports & Recreation, Senior Care, and Fitness. The lowest were in Travel & Hospitality, Health & Beauty, and Financial & Tax.
• 88% believe their business has at least some contribution to the brand as a whole. 4% believe their business does not contribute at all to the overall brand.
• The highest marks for this question among women were given in the sectors of Food & Beverage, Senior Care, and Cleaning & Maintenance. The lowest were in Travel & Hospitality, Fitness, and Child Services.

How female franchisees think other franchisees view them

• -Overall, very similar to male responses. 14% believe they are seen as leaders (17% for males), and another 83% believe they are seen as supporters (79% for males).

The satisfaction rankings of female vs. male franchisees overall and within specific sectors.

• -Average overall satisfaction is slightly higher for women. With the 5 answer choices, the response rate for the middle answers ("average," "good," and "very good") are almost identical, but the differences occur in fewer females saying "poor" and more saying "excellent" compared to men.
• -Women's overall satisfaction is generally in line with men's and our overall trends of most and least satisfied sectors.

Areas that female franchisees are most and least satisfied with

• -Same as men: Training & Support, Financial Opportunity

Net income of female vs. male franchisees

• Male franchisees report significantly higher mean income than female ($89,000 vs. $60,000). On average, males own more units and have owned their businesses longer, so that contributes some to those figures, but even looking just at single-unit owners who have had their business two years or more, males still have the edge in mean income ($85,000 vs. $69,000).

Breakdown of female franchisees by ethnicity, veteran status, and education

• Education:
  62% have Bachelor's degree or higher
  Only 0.5% did not finish high school.

• -Ethnicity:
  80% are Caucasian
  Hispanics and African-Americans both make up about 4% of female franchisees each.

• Veteran Status:
  3% of female franchisees are veterans

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