Special Report: Women Entrepreneurs: She Calls All the Shots

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Women entrepreneurs are helping one another expand their businesses as well. Sue Ling Gin, 47, a self-made real estate millionaire who runs an airline-food company in Chicago, discovered that a group of ambitious single mothers and other tenants in the city's LeClaire Courts housing project had formed a small company that prepares meals, mostly for local day-care centers. When Gin decided to bid on a $38 million food-and-beverage contract for fast-growing Midway airport, she offered the LeClaire group a 15% interest in the venture. If Gin wins the contract, the LeClaire operation will own three of Midway's 22 new food concessions, while Gin will provide financing and insurance.

Whether they are rising from the bottom of the economic scale or struggling to pursue careers while raising their children or have simply grown restless working for others, women entrepreneurs have become, in the words of the Small Business Committee report, a "gold mine of human capital." That mine has already tapped into a rich lode, and if the Government leads the way in - reducing discrimination against women in business, the gold rush will keep on gathering momentum.