Women starting small businesses at torrid pace

If you take a job with a newer business, there's a good chance you'll work for a woman.

Between 1997 and 2014, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. rose by 68 percent, compared to a 47 percent increase for all companies, according to an American Express analysis of Census Bureau figures. Women are starting an estimated 1,288 companies each day, up from 602 in 2011-12, American Express says.

Expect the numbers of women business owners to keep rising as interest in entrepreneurship grows and younger women look to famous women such as Oprah Winfrey, designers Tory Burch and Diane Von Furstenberg as role models.

But women owners aren't carbon copies of men, according to a recent Bank of America survey. Women tend to be more optimistic than men.