I am always skeptical about absolute numbers and their source. We know how statistics can be skewed to support almost any position, so while I remain open, the following numbers are a significant reflection of changes from the world I grew up in.
1. According to current research, women now fill the majority of jobs in the US.
2. Bloomberg reports that women now fill 51.4% of professional and managerial positions. Another study showed that 60% of all Masters Degrees are awarded to women.
3. Twenty-three percent of men don’t earn as much as their wives. Single women between the ages of 22 and 30 earned 8% more than men in that age group in most American cities.
4. C Level moms are no longer remarkable. In the IT sector, it became more common when we saw organizations like Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, EBay and Yahoo run by women who often had families as well as high level careers.
5. Homes are now purchased twice as often by women than men.
6. Single motherhood is now frequently a conscious lifestyle choice worldwide.
7. Futurist Faith Popcorn reports that a third of Japanese women in their 30s are unmarried.
8. Asians are leading the business trends toward more matriarchy with a third of Thailand’s CEOs being women and China showing 34% of all senior management positions as held by them.
9. Catalyst Organization reported in December 2011 that in the US those organizations with higher levels of gender diversity in the boardroom outperform companies with zero board women by 84% on sales, 60% on invested capital and 46% on return on equity.
Notice the trends: • Which of the above describes you, your friends, colleagues and associates? • What do you expect the impact to be on your career? Personal life? • How will these trends affect your decisions going forward?
© Maureen Weisner