Help A Woman
Great male philosophers have argued for women’s equality long before the women’s movement was in full swing, including British writer John Stewart Mill, The Norwegian dramatist Henrick Ibsen, and Austrian psychoanalyst Alfred Adler.
Modern discussions about the benefits to men’s involvement in women’s rights are beginning to take root worldwide as studies from Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, New Zealand and others discover the benefits of “fairer families” and “fair workplace”, and of course the zeitgeist of the recent #MeToo and related movements.
The Committee of 200 Leadership Index scores women’s progress on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being highest. If men don’t know where to start, these are the gaps for women in business that men can help with. Venture Capital (1.07), Keynote Speaking (2.23), Corporate Board Seats (2.92), Company Size (3.08), Corporate Officers (3.48), Business Ownership (6.04), Line/Staff Ratio (6.11), MBA Enrollment (6.45), Gender Wage Gap (7.94).
According to the Shriver report, these are the gaps for women in society that men can help with. Poverty, Hunger, Homelessness (70M US women), Violence Against Women (1 in 4 women), Human trafficking, Sex Slavery (unknown), Politics and justice system representation (18%), Child Raising and Health (insurance/medical research), and Women in Tech and female representation in media and entertainment (Science Technology Engineering Arts Math).
A 2003 study by Catalyst reveals that companies with the highest percentage of women in top management outperform male-dominated companies, with a 35% higher return on equity and a 24% higher total return to shareholders. Gender equity appears to be a strong factor in top financial performance.
For example, although there are over two million stay at home dads these days, most of the men you’ll work with have never been accountable for children full time, or never had to raise them on their own.
Self made female millionaires give more than three times percentage (4.7%) of their income to relatives than do men (1.5%).
Accodring to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, men negotiate initial salaries an average of 7-8% higher than women upfront
A survey of Fortune 1000 and 500 Service companies done by Korn/Ferry and UCLA reveals that 74% of executive women had a male mentor, and only 15% had a female mentor.
In addition, many studies, such as those done by the United Nations in 2004, indicate that the education of men is vital to the ability of improving conditions for women and children.
According to the AFL-CIO, if single working mothers earned as much as men for the same positions, their family income would increase 17% annually, and their poverty levels would be cut in half.
Fully 40% of women who are awarded child support don’t receive it, and half of the remaining 60% don’t get the full amount. Child support is average 10-15% of a husband’s take home pay. These days, because women are viable wage earners they cannot expect big divorce settlements. Among houses where both man and women work, bout 20% of women earn more than man they support. Half of the 60 million children are in blended, not biological families.
According to the Women’s Business Network close to 23% of the 14 million women working today are over 55 years old and need a way to make ends meet.
Unfortunately about 75% of elderly poor are women.
In the Fortune 500, according to both BusinessWeek and Catalyst, 87% of board seats, 93% of CIO, and 99% of CEO positions are held by men.
Although women make up about half of the workforce, the statistics show that men still dominate most mid and senior level positions. About 99% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are men. About 93% of the CIO’s are men.
Men control much of our means of societal influence by holding 70-90% of the congress, news editor and college faculty positions.
Men hold 87% of corporate board seats. Women average just over one seat per Fortune 500 Company, but the truth is 444 of these companies have no women on their board at all.
For example, although white men in particular are a minority being only 39% of the population, they are still the gatekeepers to power in general. They hold 70-90% of congress, news editor positions, Forbes management, college faculty, and 99% of Fortune 500 CEO slots.
There are only two women on the Forbes 25 Richest in the World list, and they inherited it from businesses formerly grown and owned by men. Out of the top 500 World’s Wealthiest, only 7% are women. Most inherited or married it. Forbes comment was that, “it’s only been 20 years”, so we shouldn’t expect women to be on par with the men.
The American Association of University Women states that women remain severely underrepresented in nontraditional occupations despite the fact that these jobs pay 20-30 percent more than traditionally female jobs. For example, in 2002, women made up 10.8 percent of all engineers; 1.4 percent of all auto mechanics; and 1.8 percent of all carpenters.
Women haven’t made their way into certain fields to share risk. Men read that 92% of all deaths on the job are men and they also occupy the largest percentage of positions in high risk and hazardous jobs, like military, lumberjack, and metal, electrical and construction labor According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The men in these careers don’t feel especially in charge or at an advantage.
The National Education Association for Elementary Teachers is concerned that only 13% of teachers are male.
Women dominate 8 out of the 10 lowest paying professions according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are café counter attendants, food prep, food serving, retail cashiers, hostess, housecleaners, garment pressers and child care workers.
In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ forty fields where women currently earn more than men, only nine of them have an average pay of over $45K annual. The top being sales engineers who earn $1.25 to each $1 a man earns.
Despite efforts money spent to encourage young women to get credentials in business and hard science, women continue to persist in pursuit of less lucrative liberal arts or career college degrees. For example, reports by the National Science Foundation indicate that from 1998 to 1999 the percentage of women awarded science and engineering master’s degrees decreased from 47 percent 41%. The US Department of Education states that in 1998, women earned only 17 percent of undergraduate and 12 percent of doctorate degrees in engineering and only about 25 percent of doctorate degrees in math and physical sciences. Overall, men are less educated and do worse in school than women and still earn more because of the types of studies women are attracted to.
In society, about 90% of women have a child by age 40. At top levels in corporate America, less than half of women have children by the same age. If your mother worked in a professional environment, it is likely she was limited to certain traditionally female positions. About 40% of corporate executive, management and administration are women, but most of these positions are still staff, not the higher earning line positions. Even today fully 99% of the Fortune 500’s top executives are still men.
Most working women, still 6 out of 10, work in low paying fields of health, office staff, retail sales, food service, cleaning and childcare.
Elder care is 75% done by women, plus women end up caring for their aging husbands.
Each year the EEOC receives 10-20,000 charges of sexual harassment. An average 15% of those charges are filed by males. One year the EEOC recovered $37.1 million in monetary benefits for charging parties and other aggrieved individuals (not including monetary benefits obtained through litigation). Those numbers rise exponentially.
The reality is that 1 of 3 US kids today is born out of wedlock. Half or remaining 2/3 will be divorced. A working woman’s time becomes even more valuable to her as she raises these children by herself. According to the Woman’s Legal Defense Fund, the first year after divorce a woman’s living standards drop 26% while men’s rise 34%.
According the Census Bureau family diversity reports, about half of all US households are headed by unmarried adults. There are now more one-person households (28.7 million) than there are households containing married couples with minor children (24.1 million).
Women business owners of sole proprietorships earn less than half of their male owned business counterparts according to IRS and US Department of Treasury statistics.
You cannot blame women for choosing careers that pay less because of men dominating a profession. For example, nursing (health care) and elementary teacher positions (education) pay less than x-ray technician and professorship positions. The first two categories are over 90% women while the second positions are over 90% men. All of these positions are hard work but also offer flexibility. Still the positions dominated by men pay more. The interesting fact is that even in these two traditionally female positions, nurse and elementary teacher, men still earn more. The US Census Bureau shows that women only earn 82% of what men earned in these same positions.
Women comprise 50 percent of the world's enfranchised population yet hold no more than 10 percent of the seats in national legislatures.
Unpaid labor of women in the household, if given economic value, would add an estimated one third to the world's annual economic product.
Women are the sole breadwinner in one-fourth to one-third of the families in the world.
US Census data indicates that men who have not been married earn less than married men. In addition, there is a correlation between men’s pay increases with each child they have, while women’s average pay decreases for each child she has, accounting for how the wage gap emerges. Fathers are valued more than mothers at work.
According to 2000 Bureau of Labor Statistics data and a survey by Maloney and Dingle, the pay gap among working women and men emerges most evident among parents. This data also shows that two-thirds of male managers are parents while only one-third of the women managers are, possibly indicating that the choice of combining work and family responsibilities falls harder on women than men.
Female enrollment in business schools plummeted 15% since 2000.
According to the Allegiance of Work & Life, men, dual earners and singles with no kids are the groups that are most likely to have considered changing jobs, not working women with families. The percentage was especially high with salaried workers who were asked to change schedules or put in time after hours or on weekends.
A Roper Organization poll revealed that 86% of American’s, male of female, surveyed would rather make an adequate salary doing a job that makes the world a better place than just make money.
When Deloitte & Touche surveyed employees to reveal the reasons for high employee turn-over, they found only 12% of women had left to take care of small children, and the majority of them planned to be working again at a later date. The rest had gone on to jobs that were a better personal fit.
In her influential review paper, "Gender in Mentoring Relationships," Ragins (1999) argued that gender is a consideration in adult-adult mentoring relationships because females, as a group, have less power and confront more sexism than males and, consequently, female mentees might be perceived as needing more protection than male mentees
Allen & Eby (2004) surveyed over 391 mentors and found male mentors tend to provide more instrumental and career support, whereas female mentorships are more often characterized by a greater degree of emotional support.
Mentor.org recommends creating an advisory board by looking at work, but also outside, for individuals who represent the "three W's": Work, Wisdom and Wealth. These advisors can include parents, mentors, youth, community members, proven volunteers, educators, clergy, doctors, foundation representatives, corporate leaders and philanthropists.
Look around you. There is someone in need that you can help to change the day and maybe even save the day. Choose to matter. Change these numbers.
A poll conducted by Yankelovich Partners, Inc. for Work Your Image! ties image to pay, promotions, and opportunity. Sixty-four percent of respondents say that a woman's appearance on the job affects whether she will be considered for a raise or promotion. Sixty-nine percent of women and 60 percent of men agree with that statement. Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) say that a woman's appearance on the job is likely to affect whether she is given new challenges, responsibilities and opportunities. Eighty-four percent of Americans say that a woman's appearance on the job is likely to affect whether she is asked to represent her company at outside meetings.
Drs. Biddle and Hamermesh's 1994 study of two Canadian and one American survey showed that the 9 percent of working men rated by interviewers as "homely or below average" received 9 percent less hourly earnings than average. The 32 percent "above average" or "handsome" looking men earned 5 percent more than the “average” men. Women with similar looks ratings were not penalized to the same level, earning 4 percent more for being above average, and 5 percent less for being unattractive.
A Catalyst survey of 452 expatriate executives revealed that women were more likely to take advantage of overseas assignments when given the option (29% men refused overseas posts versus only 20% of the women.) Women appear to be more willing to travel and be put on the map if offered the opportunity.
The 1986 Nobel Peace Prize in Economics went to James Buchanan who said if there are financial incentives to be inefficient, then business will pursue what is profitable until society’s attitude changes it. Hiring capable women leaders begets greater efficiency around role until equality is finally achieved. Opportunity begets opportunity.
According to the 1993 Korn/Ferry and UCLA survey, when executive women marry, they tend to get higher earning spouses.
The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) decided to research and consider the role of men and boys in promoting gender equality in March of 2004. The discussed how “persistent stereotypes about masculinities” influenced acceptable behavior for women. The 314 representatives from 70 countries participated and concluded that “sharing of family and community responsibilities by men and boys would lead to achievement of gender equality.”
Industrial research shows that men can change, for example a 1993 study of steel workers in Canada, “Recasting Steel Labour” by June Corman’s sociology team shows that with institutional community, such as the union, taking the lead the men became helpful in integrating women despite their original resistance.
Great male philosophers have argued for women’s equality long before the women’s movement was in full swing, including British writer John Stewart Mill, The Norwegian dramatist Henrick Ibsen, and Austrian psychoanalyst Alfred Adler. Modern discussions about the benefits to men’s involvement in women’s rights are beginning to take root worldwide as studies from Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Denmark, New Zealand and others discover the benefits of “fairer families” and “fair workplace”.