Women’s History Month Women have always worked in this country. But they became most visible during World War II, when women worked on the production lines in factories that manufactured many of the supplies for the war effort. Remember Rosie the Riveter and the motto commonly associated with her image? “We can do it.” But those jobs returned largely to men after 1945, and there was a perception that women were no longer qualified for those jobs. It took another 30 years to establish that skills, not gender, determine the ability to perform on the job. As Faith Whittlesey observed, “Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels.” Women have been fighting to prove their worth in the workplace for generations. The Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s signaled a real turning point. Progress has been steady, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Here are the stats from just a few months ago from colleges and universities across the United States. • 61% of all the pharmacy graduates are women • 63% of the auditors and accountants are women • 41% of MBA students are women • 47% in law school are women • 48% in medical school are women The number of women entrepreneurs is multiplying two to four times faster than men, depending on which part of the country you study. Last year 74% of all start-up companies were women. According to Carlson Wagonlit Travel, women business travelers will equal their male counterparts in three to five years, up from 18 percent 25 years ago. The statistic that really grabs my attention is that women entrepreneurs and business owners employ more people than the Fortune 500 companies combined. In June 2009, women held 49.83 percent of the country’s 132 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and their numbers are growing in the few sectors of the economy that are expanding. In health care, for example, women have accounted for 79 percent of jobs gained (4.52 million), whereas men represent just 1.18 million new jobs. In government, women hold 94 percent of jobs created (1.76 million), and men account for 12,000 new jobs.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:18:17 +0000
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