Iowa ranks 34th among the states in growth of the number of women-owned firms since 2007, according to the eighth annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report. It’s the best showing yet for Iowa, which last year ranked 44th and was 49th in the report’s initial year. According to the report, Iowa ranked fifth in growth of jobs created by women-owned firms since 2007, with a 46 percent increase in jobs in the past decade. More recent growth has been flat, however. The estimated number of women-owned firms in 2018, 86,600 businesses, actually declined by 1.3 percent from the 2017 figure, while employment has remained unchanged at 89,500 employed. Total sales by women-owned firms, while up 77 percent over the past decade, increased by just one-tenth of 1 percent in Iowa in the past year. The latest report ranks Iowa seventh overall in economic clout — a ranking of all 50 states and the District of Columbia by the combined growth rates of women-owned businesses for number of firms, employment and revenues.