ly doing in the management training area and the potential of their programs for entrepreneurship for women.

Marketing and Procurement Section
(General Services Administration and
the Department of Defense)

The research in this section had a threepronged goal. It was concerned with 1) an assessment of the volume of federal procurement and the share that went to women business owners, 2) an assessment of the federal procurement process to discover what barriers women faced, and 3) what programs were available or directed to aid women business owners. The study team utilized both existing documents and studies input from the Task Force inquiry, and a special survey of 32 federal agencies in its information gathering process. The agencies responding to the Task Force survey were as follows: Department of Agriculture, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Central Intelligence Agency; Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency; General Services Administration; Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Interior, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of State, Department of Transportation and Department of Treasury; Library of Congress, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; National Science Foundation; Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Panama Canal Company; Small Business Administration; Smithsonian Institution; United States Information Agency; and the Veterans Administration.

Legislation and Regulation Section (Federal Trade Commission)

The Federal Trade Commission implemented a two-step approach for its study section. First, a review of the U.S. Code and the Federal Code of Regulations was conducted. Second, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and its implementing regulations were analyzed.

Review of Code and Regulations

A preliminary review of the code was based on the Civil Rights Commission's Sex Bias in

the U.S. Code. Provisions were researched and read for impact on women business owners. A computer search was also conducted in the law library. The Congressional Clearinghouse on Women's Rights was contacted to identify current or pending legislation that would affect women business owners. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) identified the government agencies that have impact on women business owners and reviewed the Code of Federal Regulations that pertained to them. Contact was made with the Department of Justice's Task Force on Sex Discrimination to help further identify and assess the regulations bearing on women business owners.

The Equal Credit Opportunity
Act (ECOA)

Review and assessment of the ECOA was based on background research and interviews. In the research phase, FTC both reviewed the legislative history of the ECOA and studied the criticisms of the Act made by women's groups and from law review articles.

Interviews were also conducted with the heads of the enforcement agencies to determine if there were efforts made for women business owners, and some women business owners were contacted for their views on how the ECOA was working for them.

Federal Loan and Grant Programs Section (Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration)

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance was the basic resource document used to select the 31 loan programs and the 13 grant and payment programs the Task Force reviewed. The criteria for program selection was if the program:

• provided assistance directed to, or available for, business owners or for-profit operations;

• provided, or had the potential to provide, assistance to either all industries, specific industries, small businesses or women-owned businesses.

• provided, or had the potential to provide, aid to business operations.

Once identified, these programs were evaluated in terms of their performance, potential, commitment, and requirements vis-a-vis

women business owners. Both quantitative and qualitative information was obtained from government documents, the Task Force inquiry, and personal interviews to determine which programs were most relevant to women business owners.