The SBA's stated goal when announcing the new Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program was to expeditiously implement the policies, procedures and regulations necessary to ensure that federal contract dollars would immediately start to flow to WOSBs. Well, the WOSB program is up and limping along at the pace of a slow crawl.  The problem is that the regulations pertaining to WOSBs have not been finalized so the ground rules are nebulous, at best.  And the process for certification of your business as a WOSB is confusing.  The statutory intent was that companies would be able to either self certify or certify through third parties.  Sorry, we aren't quite there yet.  At present, the only way to achieve WOSB status is through self certification, unless you are already an 8(a) certified business and then you have to jump through major hoops.  And, frankly, why would any business use a third party when self certification is an option?