FILIPINO households where only the husbands earn a living while their wives are full-time homemakers are rapidly becoming an extinct demographics.

These days, two-income households are the norm, thanks mainly to the soaring cost of living that one income can barely support.

With more women than men staying in school to finish college, there is also the added impetus for women to earn their own money and make a name for themselves. Because they can.

Going into business is one of the preferred ways by which women build their own stash.

According to data provided by GE Money Bank Philippines Inc., which advocates the growth of entrepreneurship among women in the country, the Philippines has the second highest percentage of women in business, next only to Peru.

Eric Montelibano, Communications Leader of GE Money Bank, added that a little more than half or 51 percent of new businesses in the Philippines are put up by women, indicating in part that Philippine society accepts or welcomes entrepreneurship among women.

As to the type of business women usually get into, the Women?s Business Council in the Philippines revealed that most women owner-managers of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) are engaged in manufacturing (41 percent); garments, jewelry and furniture (37 percent), marketing (9 percent) and real estate (7 percent).

An earlier separate study on women entrepreneurs in SMEs in the Philippines by the UP Institute for Small Scale Industries showed that most women entrepreneurs are engaged in the following sectors: food processing (including livestock and agricultural products processing), garment making, jewelry making, shoes and bag manufacturing, handicraft and weaving.

Service enterprises are popular among women entrepreneurs in the retail and professional fields. Operating dormitories, inns, pre-schools and catering are some of the evolving business ventures, the study indicated.

Montelibano added that based on studies such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Study of 2007 and the UP-ISSI study by Sonia Tiong-Aguino, women can usually be relied on to start a business even while the husband may still be tied up in a regular job. Then as soon as the business has gained some ground, the husband joins the wife in running the growing enterprise.

There are many reasons for women risking time, effort and resources in their business but the primary motivations are the desire to contribute to the family income and to seize opportunities in the market.

So who are these women entrepreneurs?

According to a 2007 study done for GE Money by Let?s Go Foundation, most of the women entrepreneurs in the Philippines had jobs before starting their own business. Some even continued to work during the early stages of the business. Also, most are college graduates with access to some form of formal business management training and were exposed or inspired to get into business because a family member or relative was successful in it.

Montelibano said, however, that while many women are trying their hand at entrepreneurship and succeeding, a lot could still be done to increase their ranks and to help those already in business make their operations more profitable.

?Women entrepreneurs need help in managing their businesses. They need training in the basic management of finances to help ensure the success of their venture. It is also important to study sources of funding and to know what is appropriate for the business and the borrower.?

The UP-ISSI study came up with the same conclusion that women entrepreneurs generally lack access to business training and technology. These are some of the reasons that drove GE Money bank to partner with Let?s Go Foundation to put up the Women Entrepreneurship Program. The program hopes to educate and inspire young Filipino women to be enterprising leaders of society and help them do better in their business. The road to success is strewn with difficulties and challenges after all, although they?re not about to stop women from becoming entrepreneurs.

A 2007 survey of women students of entrepreneurship done for the GE Money Bank Philippines Inc. by Let?s Go Foundation provides some proof.

The study, which polled over 100 students from Assumption College, St. Scholastica?s College, College of the Holy Spirit and Miriam College, showed that the students were ?very interested? in starting their own business. One of the primary reasons is that many of the students? mothers are themselves entrepreneurs and their daughters want to follow in their footsteps.

The students, however, said that they need to know more about the intricacies of running a business before they actually take the leap.

Knowing which sectors women entrepreneurs excel in is certainly a good start.

For more information, log on to www.womenentrepreneurship.org.