What is the Women-Owned Business Contracting Program?
In 1994 Congress passed legislation that requires the federal government to award a minimum of 5% of all government-wide contracts to certified women-owned businesses.Doesn’t the Women-Owned Business Contracting Program Discriminate Against Men
No!The program does not require women to be favored over men, but allows contracting officers to use their own discretion for "restricted competition" to increase contracting opportunities for WOSBs. This may sound like a fair approach, however, the GAO survey reports that most of the small business program guidelines and restrictions actually divert attention away from women-owned goals.
In 2001, after legislation, only 2.5% of contracts were awarded to women-owned businesses (WOBs). In 2007, six years later, the federal government is still falling short of this mandated requirement and had only awarded 3.8% of contracts to women.
Why Are Women Not Getting Awarded More Government Contracts?
There are a number of problems that contribute to the discrimination against women in awarding government contracts. One of the problems is that there are no incentives for awarding contracts to women and there are no penalties when the government fails to comply with the law.
According to survey results, the Government Accounting Office, reported, "Government contracting officials at all levels told us that they were generally overwhelmed by the number and complexity of the requirements of small business contracting programs and their related goals. These officials believe that the programs tend to crowd out woman-owned small businesses."
