U.S. women are starting their own businesses at twice the rate of men and many of the barriers that existed 30 years ago have been shattered by successful female entrepreneurs.

Only 4 percent of American businesses were owned by women in 1972; today that figure has climbed to 40 percent.

“A lot of women have left the corporate world and have realized they can redefine the glass ceiling on their own terms by being their own boss,” said Jayne Armstrong, director of Delaware’s office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The flexibility of entrepreneurship is particularly attractive to women, she said, who may choose to start a home-based business if they have young children, care for aging parents or have other family responsibilities.

Another trend shows women leaving their careers midstream, frustrated by the pace of advancement in corporate culture, Armstrong said.

The national playing field has leveled substantially, but Delaware has been slow to open its door to female entrepreneurs. The U.S. Small Business Administration reported in 2002 (the most recent statistics available), that only 24 percent of the First State’s total businesses were owned by women.

Delaware has fewer female entrepreneurs because of the state’s corporate-focused business climate, Armstrong said, and much of the infrastructure required to cultivate small businesses is underdeveloped in Delaware.

And other barriers still exist for women starting their own businesses.

Beverly Stewart did not expect to encounter gender bias when she started Back to Basics in 1985.

She founded the tutoring company on her kitchen table, and had no problems until she applied for credit to buy a building a few years later. Several banks turned her down and she thought it was because of her gender.

“Our country has taken a long time to come around to the fact that women can do more than cook food and do the laundry and raise the children,” she said. “It’s taken a while for society to see women as employers and employees.”

But Stewart, 52, of Avondale, Pa., did buy a building and has grown her company from a one-woman show to an 85-employee firm that tutors hundreds of students each month.

Her company has come a long way and society has come a long way, too, she said, but she still encounters occasional bias. For example, Stewart was recently talking with a principal about tutoring and said he was surprised that she was the sole owner of the company and did not have a business partner or a franchise.

Women entrepreneurs must work even harder than men to prove themselves, Stewart said, but her confidence and determination helped her create a successful business.

“When you have this burning passion it’s hard to put that flame out,” she said.

Passion is a vital part of entrepreneurship, said Lori Copes, owner of Tone and Condition, an in-home personal training company.

“Owning your own business, you have to have the determination, the will power and the willingness to work 80 or 90 hours a week and make sacrifices,” she said.

Starting her business was not an easy task, she said, particularly because many of the networking channels for new business owners, like the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce, have fewer female members because three out of four entrepreneurs are men in Delaware.

It can be very intimidating for a young, female entrepreneur to make contacts in a room full of men, she said, but Copes persevered and grew her business into a regional firm that employs six trainers.

Another barrier is simply the demanding nature of entrepreneurship, said Copes, 33, of Newark.

“Women have a tendency to place other people or other priorities on top of themselves and that prevents us from being able to excel our businesses the way we need to,” she said.

Women who have children early in life can find it particularly difficult to become entrepreneurs, Copes said, because children are such a commitment.

Yet it was her children who inspired Carla Vicario to found her own printing company.

Vicario started Ben-Dom printing, named after her two sons, Ben and Dominic, in 1994 so she could earn enough money to send them to private school.

She and her ex-husband ran the company out of their home for a year before moving into a building in Newark and facing off against the tough competition in the printing industry, said Vicario, 43, of Pike Creek.

“Being self-employed is a gamble. We started with no money and no plan,” she said. “Just a dream; the all-American dream.”

The company grew quickly, she said, driven by her desire to remain self-employed and her determination to provide better for her family.

But being a mother and an entrepreneur presents its own set of challenges.

“It’s a challenge because you need to be there for your children and you need to be there running your business,” she said. “Honestly, I wonder how some women do it.”

However, being self-employed can also benefit a mother.

Because Vicario is her own boss, she can work a flexible schedule, even though the hours are long, which can come in handy if she needs to take time off for her children.

Her son, Dominic, is learning to drive and, because Vicario is self-employed, she can take the time each morning to drive with him to school so he gets more experience behind the wheel.

Perhaps because of the demands of family life which have tended to fall on women, printing companies have been traditionally owned by men, she said, and some bias lingers.

“I still get surprised reactions from some customers when I introduce myself as the owner,” she said.

But there are boundless opportunities for female entrepreneurs, she said, and women should not let anything hold them back.