Set-Aside Alert analysis:

Little gain from WOSB set-asides

      While women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are making progress in federal contracting, it’s not because of set-asides.

      The Small Business Administration’s set-aside program for WOSBs has generated total awards valued at less than 3%, on average, of all federal contract award dollars for WOSBs in recent years, according to Set-Aside Alert’s analysis of data from USASpending.gov and the SBA.

      In fiscal 2019, women-owned small firms captured $26 billion in federal procurements, meeting the government’s 5% goal in that category.

      But only $675 million--or 2.6%--was awarded through the WOSB set-aside program. The rest was nearly all from other types of set-asides or through open competition.

      A similar percentage of WOSB contract awards achieved through WOSB set-asides was measured in each of the last five years:

• 1.6% in fiscal 2015
• 2.1% in fiscal 2016;
• 3.1% in fiscal 2017;
• 2.4% in fiscal 2018; and
• 2.6% in fiscal 2019.

      The value of WOSB set-aside awards totaled:

• $286 million in fiscal 2015;
• $404 million in fiscal 2016;
• $638 million in fiscal 2017;
• $544 million in fiscal 2018; and
• $675 million in fiscal 2019.

      Total WOSB awards ranged from $17.8 billion in fiscal 2015 to $26 billion in fiscal 2019. SBA officials were not immediately available to comment.

      All WOSB award data in this article includes awards for Economically-Disadvantaged WOSBs (EDWOSBs).

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