Statistics, Education, & Women

These statistics come from an article by Hanna Rosin in the July/August 2010 issue of The Atlantic:

• Earlier this year, for the first time in American history, the balance of the workforce tipped toward women, who now hold a majority of the nation's jobs.
• For every two men who will receive a B.A. this year, three women will do the same
• Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the next decade in the U.S., all but two are occupied primarily by women.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women now hold 51.4% of managerial and professional jobs--up from 26.1% in 1980.
• Women make up 54% of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs.
• About 1/3 of American physicians are now women, as are 45% of associates in law firms--and both of those percentages are rising fast.
• Only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and the number has never risen much above that.
• While female CEOs may be rare in America's largest companies, they are highly prized: last year, they outearned their male counterparts by 43%, on average, and received bigger raises.
• Women now earn 60% of master's degrees, about half of all law and medical degrees, and 42% of all MBAs. Most important, women earn almost 60% of all bachelor's degrees.
• In a stark reversal since the 1970's, men are now more likely than women to hold only a high-school diploma.
• Women ages 25 to 34 with only a high-school diploma currently have a median income of $25,747, while men in the same position earn $32,469.
• [Many colleges and universities are] tipping toward 60% women, a level many admissions officers worry could permanently shift the atmosphere and reputation of a school.
• This is the first time that the cohort of Americans ages 30-44 has more college-educated women than college-educated men.
• In 1970, women contributed 2-6% of the family income. Now the typical working wife brings home 42.2%, and 4 in 10 mothers--many of them single mothers--are the primary breadwinners in their family.
• In 1970, 84% of women ages 30-44 were married; now 60% are. In 2007, among American women without a high-school diploma, 43% were married.

Very interesting . . .