“To level the playing field for women business owners, the Federal Government limits competition for certain contracts to businesses participating in SBA’s Women-Owned Small Business (‘WOSB’) Federal Contracting Program. Ideally, those contracts are for specific industries where WOSBs are historically underrepresented. And in fact, the Government even has certain WOSB contracting goals to encourage such set-asides. So, its easy to see why the WOSB Program can be a great opportunity for small businesses to get a leg up in the federal contracting world. But don’t let the name fool you, it takes more than just woman-ownership to get in–and stay in. Let’s take a closer look at SBA’s requirements for becoming certified under the WOSB Program. Under SBA’s WOSB eligibility rules, there are really three main requirements for a company to qualify as a WOSB. The applying (or recertifying) company must: (1) be a small business; (2) with unconditional and direct majority ownership by a woman; and (3) with day-to-day and long-term management by a woman... Regarding the requirement for direct ownership, the regulations state that the qualifying woman or women (combined) must own at least 51% of the company directly; thus, the 51% ownership cannot be ownership ‘through another business entity or a trust (including employee stock ownership plan) that is, in turn, owned and controlled by one or more women[.]’ But the rules do include the caveat that ‘ownership by a trust, such as a living trust, may be treated as the functional equivalent of ownership by a woman[] where the trust is revocable, and the woman is the grantor, the trustee, and the sole current beneficiary of the trust.’...” Read the full article here. Source: Back to Basics: WOSB Eligibility – By Nicole Pottroff, May 17, 2022. SmallGovCon.