Women-Owned Small Business Share of Federal Custom Software Contracts, FY2021 to FY2025

Key findings

• Federal contract obligations under NAICS 541511 were $10.53 billion in FY2025, up 19.5% from $8.81 billion in FY2021 and down from a peak of $11.01 billion in FY2024.
• Obligations on contracts coded as Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Program set-asides under NAICS 541511 rose every year, from $49.5 million in FY2021 to $126.8 million in FY2025, or 2.56 times the FY2021 amount.
• As a share of all NAICS 541511 contract obligations, WOSB Program set-asides grew from 0.56% in FY2021 to 1.20% in FY2025. Across the five years combined they were $440.7 million of $50.42 billion, or 0.87%.
• Firms flagged in the data as women-owned small businesses received $1,155.8 million of NAICS 541511 contract obligations in FY2025 (10.97%), on all contracts, set aside or not.
• In FY2025, 86.0% of NAICS 541511 WOSB Program set-aside dollars carried the WOSB set-aside code and 13.2% were sole-source awards (WOSB or EDWOSB sole source, $16.8 million). Set-asides coded specifically for economically disadvantaged women-owned small businesses (EDWOSB and EDWOSB sole source) were $1.22 million, or 0.96%.
• Three agencies accounted for 79.3% of FY2025 NAICS 541511 WOSB Program set-aside dollars: Department of Health and Human Services ($46.9 million), Department of Defense ($36.4 million) and Department of Justice ($17.2 million).
• 58 recipients had obligations under NAICS 541511 WOSB Program set-asides in FY2025, up from 33 in FY2021. The five largest received 61.3% of FY2025 set-aside dollars.
• Under NAICS 541512, Computer Systems Design Services, the pattern ran the other way: WOSB Program set-aside obligations fell from $68.6 million in FY2021 to $47.1 million in FY2025 (0.25% to 0.15% of the code), while total 541512 obligations grew from $26.99 billion to $32.11 billion.

NAICS 541511 contract obligations by fiscal year

Net contract obligations, in nominal dollars (B = billion, M = million). Fiscal year 2025 ran from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. "WOSB Program set-asides" combines the four set-aside codes shown in the second table. The recipient count is not summed across years because the same firm can appear in several years.

WOSB Program set-asides by set-aside code, NAICS 541511

Download the full data as CSV (both NAICS codes, every fiscal year, exact dollar amounts).

Top 10 awarding agencies for NAICS 541511 WOSB Program set-asides, FY2025

Net obligations on contracts coded as WOSB, WOSB sole source, EDWOSB or EDWOSB sole source set-asides, by awarding department or independent agency. 14 agencies recorded net positive obligations; 17 recorded any transactions at all.

How NAICS 541512 compares

NAICS 541512, Computer Systems Design Services, is the larger neighboring IT services code. The same filters applied to it show WOSB Program set-asides shrinking in dollars and in share over the same five years.

The 5 percent goal

Federal law sets a governmentwide goal for participation by small businesses owned and controlled by women of "not less than 5 percent of the total value of all prime contract and subcontract awards for each fiscal year" (15 U.S.C. 644(g)(1)(A)(v)).

That goal covers all prime contracts and subcontracts across the government. This study measures prime contract obligations under two NAICS codes, so its figures describe these codes only and are not a measure of progress toward the goal.

Methodology

All figures come from the public USAspending.gov API (no key). USAspending reported its award data as last updated on November 11, 2026 (GET /api/v2/awards/last_updated/), and every request was made on November 11, 2026.

• Fiscal years. Each fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30. Filter time_period from 2020-10-01 to 2025-09-30, matched against each contract transaction's action date (the API default), grouped by fiscal year. FY2026, which ended on September 30, 2026, six weeks before the pull, is not included: agencies keep reporting and correcting contract actions for months after a fiscal year closes.
• Dollars. Net obligations summed from contract transactions ("spending_level": "transactions"). Deobligations are negative and are included. Amounts are nominal, not adjusted for inflation.
• Contracts. award_type_codes A, B, C and D: blanket purchase agreement calls, purchase orders, delivery orders and definitive contracts. Grants, loans and other assistance are excluded, and so are obligations recorded on indefinite delivery vehicle records themselves (award types IDV_A to IDV_E); the orders and calls placed under those vehicles are included.
• Industry. naics_codes: {"require": ["541511"]}, and the same with 541512 for the comparison. The NAICS code is the one recorded on each contract action.
• WOSB Program set-asides. set_aside_type_codes WOSB, WOSBSS, EDWOSB and EDWOSBSS, the four women-owned codes in USAspending's set-aside filter. The API matches these against the set-aside type recorded on each transaction. Each code was also queried on its own; the four results add up to the combined total in every year.
• Women-owned small businesses on any basis. recipient_type_names women_owned_small_business, economically_disadvantaged_women_owned_small_business and the two women-owned joint venture types. The API matches these against the business categories on each transaction.
• Endpoints. POST /api/v2/search/spending_over_time/ (yearly totals), POST /api/v2/search/spending_by_category/awarding_agency/ (agencies) and POST /api/v2/search/spending_by_category/recipient/ (recipients). Recipient counts are the number of distinct recipients the API returns for each year; their amounts add up to the set-aside total to within one cent. Agency amounts add up the same way.

Every request body and raw response is kept with the study, so each number can be reproduced by sending the same request. Figures can change slightly on a later pull as agencies correct their records.

Limitations

• Set-aside coding is not certification. The set-aside type is what the contracting office recorded for the contract action. It shows how the work was competed, not whether the recipient held an SBA certification on the day of the pull.
• Set-asides are a small part of the women-owned total. In FY2025 the "any basis" figure for NAICS 541511 ($1,155.8 million) was 9.1 times the set-aside figure, so most contract dollars reaching firms flagged as women-owned small businesses were on contracts not coded as WOSB Program set-asides.
• The women-owned flag is not an SBA check. The "any basis" figures rely on the business categories USAspending publishes for each contract action. They do not confirm that a firm is SBA-certified as a WOSB or EDWOSB.
• Prime contracts only. Subcontracts are not included, so dollars that reach women-owned firms as subcontractors are not counted.
• Net obligations. Deobligations reduce totals and can make an agency or recipient net negative in a year. Obligations are not the same as outlays (payments).
• Not an official scorecard. These figures were compiled independently from USAspending.gov and are not the SBA procurement scorecard.

Frequently asked questions

How Sthenos fits

Sthenos LLC (Sthenos Technologies), which compiled this study, is certified by SBA as a Women-Owned Small Business and an Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business, active March 5, 2026 to March 5, 2029. Its primary NAICS code is 541511. USAspending.gov shows no federal prime awards for its UEI, ULUZGKWYCJB7, so Sthenos is not among the recipients counted here. Sthenos is open to subcontracting with prime contractors.

For how WOSB and EDWOSB subcontracts count in a prime's subcontracting plan, see our guide for prime contractors. Certification details · SBA Small Business Search record.

Cite and download

You are welcome to quote these figures with a link to this page.

Download data.csv: one row per fiscal year and NAICS code, with total obligations, each set-aside code, shares and recipient counts.

Sources

• USAspending.gov
• USAspending API endpoint documentation
• USAspending API search filter definitions (time_period, naics_codes, set_aside_type_codes, recipient_type_names)
• 15 U.S.C. 644(g)(1)(A)(v), govinfo.gov, United States Code 2024 edition
• SBA Small Business Search: Sthenos LLC record

Published by Sthenos Technologies, an SBA-certified WOSB and EDWOSB software firm (UEI ULUZGKWYCJB7, CAGE 9RX92).