Just how big is the business gender gap? It’s not breaking news that women are offered fewer opportunities to advance into leadership roles in the business world. It’s also a well-known fact that women are often paid less than men for the same jobs. But what does the business gender gap look like in numbers?
DECEMBER 2012: Women in Top Leadership Roles at Fortune 500 Companies
According to the 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors and 2012 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Executive Officers and Top Earners, little changed for women in top leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies during 2012.
Key findings from the 2012 studies revealed:
- Women’s share of Board Director and Executive Officer positions increased by only half a percentage point or less during 2012.
- Women held only 16.6% of board seats in 2012, marking the seventh consecutive year of no growth.
- Women held 14.3% of Executive Officer positions—flat-lined for the third straight year.
- Women held only 8.1% of top earner slots.
NOVEMBER 2012: Women Offered Fewer Career-Advancing “Hot Jobs” Than Men
According to a study from Catalyst (Good Intentions, Imperfect Execution? Women Get Fewer of the Hot Jobs Needed to Advance), women get fewer of the high visibility, mission-critical roles and international experiences (i.e., “hot jobs”) that are necessary to get ahead at global companies.
Some of the highlights from the study include:
- Men lead projects with bigger budgets (more than twice the size of women’s), larger teams (more than three times as many staff), that posed higher risk to the company (30% of men vs. 22% of women), and had more C-suite visibility (35% of men vs. 26% of women) than women.
- Men have roles with more critical responsibility for profit and loss (56% of men vs. 46% of women), management of direct reports (77% of men vs. 70% of women), and budgets over $10 million (30% of men vs. 22% of women) than women.
- Women get fewer international assignments (which are often predictive of advancements) than men, but it’s not because they’re unwilling to relocate. Of those most willing to relocate, more men than women got those assignments (35% vs. 26%), and more women than men were never offered the opportunity (64% vs. 55%).
- More men than women got “hot jobs” after being in formal leadership development programs, and more men were promoted within a year of program completion than women (51% of men vs. 37% of women).
- 62% of respondents to the study said high-profile assignments that gave them leadership experience had the greatest impact on their careers. Just 10% said formal training programs are most impactful.
AUGUST 2012: Gender Wage Gap by the Numbers
According to the August 2012 Women’s Earnings and Income report from Catalyst:
- The median annual earnings for full-time, year-round women workers in 2010 was $36,931 compared to $47,715 for men.
- In 2011, the median weekly earnings for full-time working women was $684, compared to $832 for men.
- In 2011, the median weekly earnings for women in full-time management, professional, and related occupations was $941, compared to $1,269 for men.
- In 2009, of the 32,280,000 dual-career couples, wives earned more than their husbands 28.9% of the time, up from 17.8% of the 29,755,000 dual-career couples in 1987.
- In 2010, full-time working married women with spouses present had median usual weekly earnings of $727, somewhat higher than never married women ($591) or women of other marital status (divorced, separated, or widowed – $653).
- In 2010, married men with spouses present had median usual weekly earnings of $939, significantly higher than never married men ($608) or men of other marital status ($774).
- Based on median annual earnings for full-time, year-round workers, women earned 77.4% of men’s earnings in 2010.
- Based on the median weekly earnings for full-time workers, (which excludes self-employed and full-time workers who work only part of the year), in 2011 women earned 82.2% as much as men. In 1979, women earned 62.3% as much as men.
- The earnings difference between women and men varies with age, with younger women more closely approaching pay equity than older women (2010, median weekly earnings), for full-time wage and salary workers.
- The gender wage gap also varies by industry. The biggest wage gap in the U.S. is in the Financial Activities industry, with women earning 70.5 cents for every dollar men make.
APRIL 2012: What the Gender Wage Gap Really Costs Women
A report by the National Partnership for Women & Wage Families found that women are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, which amounts to a yearly wage gap of $10,784 between full-time working men and women.
The size of the wage gap varies from its lowest in Vermont where women make 84 cents for every dollar that men make to its highest in Wyoming where women make just 64 cents for every dollar that men make.
The gender wage gap for a woman working full-time and year-round equates to:
- 92 weeks of food (that’s 1.8 years)
- 7 months of mortgage and utilities payments
- 13 months of rent
- 35 months of family health insurance premiums (that’s 2.9 years)
- 2,751 gallons of gas
Specific gender wage gap statistics:
- The gender wage gap is not isolated to a certain career or industry.
- The gender wage gap increases as a woman’s education increases.
- Women with doctoral degrees are paid less than men with master’s degress.
- Women with master’s degrees are paid less than men with bachelor’s degrees.
- Women with professional degrees are paid just $0.67 for every $1.00 paid to men with professional degrees.
- Women with children are paid 2.5% less than women without children, but men with children are paid 2.1% more than men without children.
JULY 2011: Women Make up Half the Workforce but Just 2% of CEOs
According to statistics published by Catalyst, nearly one in two people in the workforce are women, but men hold the vast majority of executive and board-level positions.
Women make up:
- 46.7% of the U.S. labor force
- 51.5% of management, professional and related occupations
- 14.4% of Fortune 500 executive officers
- 15.7% of Fortune 500 board seats
- 7.6% of Fortune 500 top earners
- 2.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs
