Women own about 30 percent of businesses but access only about five percent of the equity capital doled out each year, Alicia Robb says in the latest installment of the Kauffman Sketchbook series. 

In the Sketchbook, Robb (left), a senior research fellow at the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, explores the challenges women face in securing capital. Entitled "A Rising Tide," the video debuted on June 28 at the We Own It Summit in New York. 

Robb draws from findings explored at greater length in her book, "A Rising Tide: Financing Strategies for Women-Owned Firms," and says that women entrepreneurs tend to start businesses with much less capital than their male counterparts.

"Financing your business is a huge challenge for any entrepreneur," Robb says, "but women tend to typically face greater challenges in starting their business."

Robb briefly examines reasons for that and says part of the challenge for most women is that they aren't part of any "old boys network."

"There's not that many women on the funding side of venture capital and angel financing," she says. "And I think that needs to be a goal of ours, to get more of the women in those different pipelines."

If that happens, Robb is bullish on the results it could produce. "We have a lot of untapped human capital and potential in women in this country," she says, "and we need to do more to encourage that."

Credits: Video from kauffman.org. Photo of Robb from kauffman.org.