MEN NEED NOT APPLY: Government sets aside contracts for women-owned firms only. And in practice, the rule is rather easy to get around. Back in the late 70's, when I was in graduate school and SBA preferences were first granted to women-owned businesses, a friend of mine and another doctoral candidate used the opportunity to put his little business in his wife's name to get a competitive advantage. At the time of his death in 2009, he was President of the same business he started in 1976.

For more information on women-owned set-asides, go here.