According to the Center for Women's Business Research, nearly half of all private companies are now at least 50 percent owned by women. The number of companies owned by women is rising faster than the number of companies owned by men. As more women take over the responsibility of handing out the paychecks, it will be interesting to observe the effect on the gender pay gap.
See "Women Are Writing a Lot More of Those Paychecks", Hubert B. Herring, The New York Times, March 13, 2005