Women At Work Stats
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In 2024, women earned an average of 85% of what men earned
LGBTQIA+ workers are also more greatly impacted by the pay gap — the analysis found that women in the LGBTQIA+ community earn 87 cents for every dollar the typical worker earns, and this drops to 60 cents for trans women.
The pay gap also contributes to the wealth gap. It makes it difficult for women to amass savings, build wealth , and achieve economic security.
Women are much more likely than men to work in minimum-wage jobs, such as home-health aides, child-care workers, cashiers, and restaurant workers. These jobs pay as low as $7.25 per hour in some states.
Women, regardless of their race or ethnicity, would lose $399,600 over the course of a 40-year career due to the wage gap.
For Native women compared to white, non-Hispanic men, the career losses amount to $1,149,880.
For Latinas, the losses are $1,218,000.
For Black women, the losses are $884,800.
For Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander women (AANHPI), the losses are $187,616
Assuming a woman, regardless of her race or ethnicity, begins working full-time, year-round at age 20, the wage gap means she would have to work until she is nearly 68 years old to be paid what her male counterpart would be paid by age 60.
Black, Latina, and Native women would have to work full time, year-round, to nearly age 80 or 90—beyond their life expectancies—to make what white non-Hispanic men are paid by age 60.
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At the current rate of progress, it will take almost 50 years to reach parity for all women in corporate America.
It will take 22 years to reach parity for white women in leadership, but 48 years for women of color.
Women now make up 29% of C-suite positions, compared to just 17% in 2015 - a significant increase over the past decade.
The main driver of women's increased representation in senior leadership was a reduction in line roles rather than more women being promoted.
Businesses with women in at least 15 per cent of senior management report 50% higher profits than those with women in fewer than 10% of leadership roles, according to a 2016 management study by Credit Suisse
67% of women reported they’d learned the most important lessons about leadership from other women.
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For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 81 women are promoted, showing a continued "broken rung" at the first step up.
46% of women surveyed have watched a male co-worker receive a promotion when they believe a more deserving female co-worker was passed over.
Women are significantly less satisfied with their potential for future growth than men—an area that saw a 9.8% gender gap.
Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed say they have had to make greater career sacrifices than their male colleagues, yet many are still overlooked for advancement.
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Despite progress, fewer companies are investing in career development and sponsorship programs specifically addressing challenges faced by women and women of color.
Three in 10 women (31%) said their gender has held them back in the workplace.
Regarding those who work in Education, Female superintendent candidates won’t apply until they know they’re 110 percent ready, and male superintendent candidates apply when they’re like 55 percent ready.
About a third (37%) of respondents say they feel they need to prioritize their partner’s career over their own; the most common reason for this is that their partner earns more. This kind of reasoning has the potential to create a vicious circle: Women’s chances of earning more may diminish if they continue to prioritize their partners’ careers over their own.
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Nearly nine in 10 women feel pressure to dress, speak, or behave a certain way because of being female in a senior leadership role.
Sixty-three percent of women surveyed state their professional judgement is questioned more frequently than that of male counterparts.
Sixty-five percent report being asked to take on extra responsibilities not expected of male leaders, including taking notes, working late, and organizing office celebrations.
Forty-four percent of respondents reported experiencing harassment and/or microaggressions in the workplace.
Women who identify as LGBTQIA+ are considerably more likely to have experienced non-inclusive behaviors, with more than three-quarters reporting that they experienced them in the last 12 months.
Women reported these as the top 3 behaviors they have experienced at work:
Being interrupted and/or talked over in meetings
Being given fewer opportunities to speak up in meetings compared with male colleagues
Being excluded from informal interactions or conversations
Women receive 14% less funding than male founders in general and an additional 8% less if the investor has experienced a failure by another woman-led startup in the past five years.
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Women are under-represented in sectors that matter for the health of our planet, including those related to resource management. In 2019, only 23.7% of managers in large utility companies (with more than 200 employees) were women. In smaller utility companies, the share was even lower, at 23.1%.
A few generations ago, newspapers routinely posted employment ads in separate categories: Help Wanted Male and Help Wanted Female. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, along with more enlightened sensibilities, helped to change that, but the notion that some jobs are for men and others for women stubbornly persists today.
Women make up only 34% of the science and engineering workforce.
Companies with strong DEI programs have at least 35% women leaders on average, compared to only 25% women leaders in companies with no or low-quality DEI programs.
Women CEOs run 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies.
86% of women report that when they see more women in leadership, they are encouraged that they can get there themselves.
Women of color only occupy 7% of C-suite positions.
8.2% of S&P 500 companies were led by female CEOs in 2024.
About 33% of board seats at S&P 500 companies are held by women.
Women own 42% of all businesses in the U.S., but only 4.3% of total revenue goes to women-owned firms.
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In 2017, the latest year with available data, 41 percent of mothers were the sole or primary breadwinners for their families, earning at least half of their total household income.
Research has shown that hiring managers are less likely to hire mothers compared to women who don’t have kids, and when employers do make an offer to a mother, they offer her a lower salary than they do other women. Men, by contrast, do not suffer a penalty when they become dads. In fact, there’s some evidence of a “fatherhood bonus” in which their earnings actually increase.
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy research, 43% of women workers had at least one year with no earnings, nearly twice the rate of men.
Twenty-two percent of surveyed superintendents state they have been explicitly asked questions about having children or caring for family.
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According to the 2024 Job Satisfaction survey from the Conference Board, for the seventh consecutive year, women have been significantly less satisfied than men across nearly all areas of job satisfaction.
It’s worth noting that the study also found that where you work impacts satisfaction for both men and women. Highlighting workers’ preference for flexibility, Allan Schweyer, principal researcher in the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board, said, “Remote or hybrid work enhances satisfaction, with fully on-site workers reporting the lowest satisfaction.” There’s good reason to believe that this area heavily impacts women, who take on a majority of household responsibilities while balancing their careers, according to research from the Center on Regulation and Markets at Brookings.
49% of women experience burnout due to their jobs all or some of the time, a higher percentage than men (43%)
87% of female employees express ambition in their careers, with 48% identifying as "very ambitious".
And while nearly a third of women have taken time off work for mental health reasons, only 25% feel comfortable disclosing the reason for their absence.
Respondents in ethnic minority groups are more likely to feel burned out than those who are not in a minority group.
Outside of the workplace, women’s rights, finances, health, and personal safety are top concerns. When asked about factors affecting women outside the workplace, our respondents are most worried about the rights of women (59% say this is their top concern). This is followed by financial security (58%), mental and physical health (both at 56%), and personal safety (54%).
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67% of women said they need more support building confidence to feel like they can be leaders.
Women leaders are less likely to have had formal mentors than men: 24% vs 30%. This gap widens at senior levels, where 27% of women and 38% of men have had formal mentors.
Women leaders are less likely than men to receive leadership development opportunities: 12% less likely to receive leadership skills training and 15% less likely to undergo leadership assessments.
Only 40% of women surveyed believe they get adequate mental health support from their employer.