Michael Kurtenbach recalls Janet Napolitano’s election over Matt Salmon for governor in 2002. He remembers seeing her inauguration speech on TV when he was 13 and seeing her leave for Washington D.C. earlier this year.

However, one thing the 18-year-old political science major at Arizona State University doesn’t remember, is a man serving as Arizona’s governor.

The Center for Women’s Business Research reports that 10.1 million business firms in the United States are owned by women, employing more than 13 million people and generating $1.9 trillion in sales.

Women-owned ventures also account for 40 percent of all privately owned firms.

Earlier this year, ASU professor Marjorie Baldwin contributed to the national debate regarding health care reform, advocating incremental changes and warning against rushing into a broad, public health care system that covers everybody.