Since mentoring many small business hopefuls I've come to realize a very disturbing fact. Many very bright and hopeful female entrepreneurs have crossed my office threshold with the mistaken idea that just being a woman gives them an advantage over their male counterparts. Sadly, this is not as true as we've been led to believe.

Certainly the female population of today is much better off than their mother's or grandmothers, but obtaining financial support/loans isn't viewed by bankers any differently than it is for male entrepreneurs.

A myth has been circulating for years that has led entrepreneurs to believe that women-owned and minority-owned businesses can obtain loans easier. Unfortunately, that is only a myth.

If your entrepreneurial dream requires a bank loan, the process isn't any easier if you're a woman or a minority. The only slight advantage is that there may be additional lending sources available if you're in either of these categories. But you still have to sell the lender on your business and means of repayment.

Both male and female executives in the corporate arena have much in common in terms of professional aspirations. However, the playing field is far from being equal. A survey was done by a non-profit research group called Catalyst recently. Male & female executives at 1,000 of the largest corporations in the U.S. were surveyed and more than half of the women said that they aspire to a CEO position. They were even willing to make sacrifices such as delaying a marriage and/or children, and that very willingness shouts to us that the field isn't equal.

Other survey results were as follows:

?49.5% of all employed managers and professionals are women, but they still tend to manage only other women.

?The highest-paid female executive still earns only 68% of the salary paid to her male counterpart.

?Firms that include women on their senior management teams showed greater improvement in corporate performance.

?62% of the firms that included women on their senior management team saw their market share grow, compared with only 39% of companies with no female senior management.

Advancements in technology should help ease the movement of more women into leadership. Computers enable women to work more flexible hours and better balance work and family commitments, which is not expected of their male counterparts. (How equal is that?)

So-called feminine leadership traits will grow in importance in the 21st century, according to more than 160 international companies and 75 senior executives? view of their firm's progress toward gender equity.

Most respondents, predominantly male, predicted wide-spread abandonment of the ?command and control? managerial style for a more ?team-oriented? approach. That doesn't seem all that bad to me. I can think of a lot of companies that could use more teamwork and less monarchy leadership.

These business gurus saw this new style as requiring skills that are ?more feminine than masculine,? thus giving an edge to female managers. However, another 15-year study has shown that female managers are no more inclusive or democratic than men when making workplace decisions.

As grim as these facts might be, I don't want to discourage any prospective female entrepreneurs. We female business owners know that we may have to work twice as hard for half the recognition and pay, but ladies ? statistics show we'll outlive our male counterparts.

We know that any woman who is a wife and mother and also in business, could do the job of two air traffic controllers without breaking a sweat even as the airport burns to the ground.