Yelp introduces a women-owned business feature for International Women’s Day

In honor of International Women’s Day, Yelp is introducing a feature that enables users to search exclusively for women-owned businesses.

Girl bosses are everywhere these days. In fact, Yelp reports that mentions of women-owned businesses have increased 20 percent since 2018, and a whopping 54 percent in the past five years. With so many women starting brands of their own, it makes sense to lift them by shining a spotlight on their achievements — and that’s exactly what Yelp plans to do.

For International Women’s Day this year, which takes place on March 8, Yelp is making its women-owned business attribute searchable for the first time ever — meaning anyone looking specifically for a company owned by a woman will now have a much easier time finding such an organization. Yelp allows businesses to mark themselves as being women owned or not, and with that tag being searchable, women will have an easier time putting themselves — and their products and services — out there in the world.

In addition to announcing this new search option, Yelp also released some interesting — and exciting — statistics surrounding women-owned businesses on its website. To start, the website reports that women-owned companies tend to get more positive reviews than those without the women-owned tag. That certainly points to their success on its own, but here’s a look at some other numbers:

The number of women-owned businesses on Yelp is pretty staggering — and we mean that in the best way possible — and it’s nice to see it extends to industries like “Health & Medical,” which were once believed to be “for men.”

Yelp’s infographics also highlight the notion that customers seem to choose women’s businesses, particularly in the following industries:

Yelp’s feature points to a step in the right direction for women in business, and with any luck, it will encourage consumers to frequent more female-led businesses more often — and maybe inspire more women to create startups of their own.

Do you prefer to support businesses run by women? What are some of your favorites? Tell us in the comments below!