After 20 years of government support targeting women-owned businesses, the time may be approaching to declare victory over gender inequality in this area of the economy -- and perhaps reassess whether such programs are necessary.

In 1988, the federal government created the National Women's Business Council to find ways to encourage female entrepreneurs. The law aimed to let women-owned businesses get better access to government contracts, and helped create the National Association of Women Business owners, a government-funded advocacy and research group. The same year marked the beginning of the Women's Business Center program, part of the Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership, which today has approximately 100 offices across the United States. The budget for the women's business centers was $20 million in 2007.

The federal push has brought about other benefits. Women-owned firms get preference in landing government contracts and special consideration for government-backed loans. There is government-funded, women-only mentoring assistance. Private-sector organizations such as American Express also provide financial grants and loans targeting businesses owned by women.

These programs have helped dramatically expand the ranks of female business owners. The Center for Women's Business Research reports that from 1997 to 2006, the number of women-owned firms grew by 42.3 percent, nearly twice as fast as the 23.3 percent growth rate of all firms. Today, 41 percent of all privately held firms -- more than 10 million -- are at least 50 percent controlled by women. In fact, according to Wilma Goldstein, assistant administrator of the SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership in Washington, D.C., updated figures would show the share at 44 percent.

Does this mean female entrepreneurs are no longer in need of gender-specific support? After all, women represent about 52 percent of the population. If the proportion of female-owned businesses continues to expand at current rates, parity with male-owned business owners is inevitable. What then?

"You mean end the help?" Goldstein responds, when I asked if she'd thought about what happens when women business owners reach parity. "I guess my answer is if you're at 50 percent you keep going until -- jokingly, I would say -- we take over the whole thing." After thinking it over, she decides that little, if anything, would change in her office, which oversees 113 Women's Business Centers serving a clientele that is 90 percent female.

One could argue that overall parity in business ownership is not the only number to consider. The Women's Business Research Center notes that only about 3 percent of women-owned firms report $1 million in annual revenues, compared to about 6 percent of male entrepreneurs. And behind those numbers may lie yet another story, namely that much of the difference in revenues stems from the fact that women entrepreneurs don't work as many hours.

It's also worth noting that Washington has failed to achieve the goal, set in 1994, of awarding 5 percent of federal contracting dollars to women-owned small businesses. That's one reason why the SBA is proposing a new program to specifically set aside government contracts for women.

However, some female business advocates, including the National Women's Business Council, want the SBA to scrap its plan and draw up a different rule that "better addresses" the interests of stakeholders. And others don't want any expansion of preference in government contracting.

"I am not a supporter of set-asides," says Janet Christy, a Greer, South Carolina, business advisor and author of Capitalizing on Being Women-Owned. "If we as women business owners are asking the government to increase the number of set-asides for us, we are asking them to do for us what we're asking them not to do for Caucasian male-owned businesses. I don't think that's the way to do it." Christy would rather see information that helps women-led startups select industries offering better financial rewards.