There is no doubt that women’s equality has made positive strides since the beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement in the 1920’s. However, certain issues like income inequality remain ensconced in the workplace, and further exist amongst women of different ethnicities.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Annual Report in 2012, a Caucasian male made about $169 more per week then a female counterpart doing the same job. Caucasian women on average made roughly $110 more than African American women in the same position and $190 more than a woman of Hispanic descent. Apart from this trend, people of Asian descent trumped the list for highest weekly earnings in 2012. Asian men earned the most, making about $176 more than Caucasian men who came in at number two. Asian women also out-earned their Caucasian counterpart by about $80 weekly.
Numbers like this make us baulk at the current state of women’s issues, but let us not forget to mention positive trends of women in business. In fact, the business powerhouse magazine Forbes recently released its annual list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” which includes a pleasing palette of diversity. We have previously highlighted these women outliers here.
Latinas to make the Forbes list include Brazilian politician Dilma Rousseff (rank #4); Petrobras CEO, Maria da Graças Silva Foster (rank #16); President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (rank #19); President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet (rank #25); actress, Sofía Vergara (rank #32); singer, Shakira Mebarak (rank #58); as well as others.
African American women to make the list include First Lady Michelle Obama (rank #8); TV personality, Oprah Winfrey (rank #14); singer, Beyoncé Knowles (rank #17); Xerox Chairman and CEO, Ursula Burns (rank #22); President of Malawi, Joyce Banda (rank #40); and others.
Asian women to make the list include President of South Korea, Geun-hye Park (rank #11); PepsiCo CEO, Indra Nooyi (rank #13); World Health Organization Director-General, Margaret Chan (rank #30); and others.
Recognizing the achievements of outleirs, regardless of race, age, and gender is the driver behind our upcoming book, Ingredients of Outliers: Women Game Changers. For Outlier Series publishing updates, visit www.ingredientsofoutliers.com.The Outlier Series includes Ingredients of Outliers: A Recipe for Personal Achievement, Ingredients of Young Outliers: Achieving Your Most Amazing Future, and Ingredients of Outliers: Women Game Changers, coming the summer of 2014.
For more information about current goals and opportunities in the Women’s Movement, check out http://www.drexel.edu/vision2020/.
What do you think about these statistics? Do you project earnings across the board to level out? Please share your thoughts below.
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