Women’s Business Fact Sheet

By Kathy Korman Frey

Below is a list of facts I find most interesting for women in business. Enjoy, and subscribe to this blog for frequent updates.

75% of Americans reject the idea that women should return to traditional roles in society

• Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
• http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/745/the-harried-life-of-the-working-mother

Women who are balanced believe they are more successful, and are more likely to believe they are compensated fairly (86%) vs working women in general (65%)

• Source: The Hot Mommas Project and the George Washington University School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence
• http://business.gwu.edu/news/archive/2008/0829.cfm#hotmommas

One in five firms with revenue of $1 million or more is woman-owned.

• Source: Center for Women’s Business Research
• http://www.womensbusinessresearchcenter.org/research/keyfacts/

37% of working women prefer full time work, while 79% of working men prefer full time

• Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
• http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/745/the-harried-life-of-the-working-mother

Women-owned firms (50% of ownership or more) account for 40% of all privately held firms.

• Source: Center for Women’s Business Research
• http://www.womensbusinessresearchcenter.org/research/keyfacts/

There are 15 female – or 3% –  CEOs of Fortune 500 companies

• Source: Catalyst
• http://www.catalyst.org/publication/322/women-ceos-of-the-fortune-1000
• http://www.catalyst.org/publication/206/women-in-us-management

69% of adults think women and men make equally good leaders

• Source: Pew Charitable Trust
• http://pewresearch.org/pubs/932/men-or-women-whos-the-better-leader

89% of Americans are comfortable with women in leadership, yet only 18% of women are in leadership positions.

• Source: White House Project study Benchmarking Women in Leadership
• http://thewhitehouseproject.org/documents/Report.pdf

Work-life balance is a future key concern in almost every region globally

• Source: SHRM, BCG, and WFPMA
• http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/The-Boston-Consulting-Group-843186.html

Three in 10 women who are not employed say family duties keep them from working

• Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
• http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/745/the-harried-life-of-the-working-mother

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy increases when women & girls are exposed to role models

• Source: Cox, Mueller, & Moss, 2002
• www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/164595266.html

Companies with a record of promoting women are more profitable. Of the Fortune 500 companies, the top 25 companies for women demonstrated 69% higher profitability than the industry median (profit as a percentage of equity)

• Source: Pepperdine Professor Ray Adler’s, “Women in the Executive Suite Correlates to High Profits”
• Summary: http://s3.amazonaws.com/mmc-beta-production/assets/11195/MMResearch_Essay.pdf
• Report: http://www.equalpay.nu/docs/en/adler_web.pdf
• Note: The data point to a correlation, not causality.

Women are more likely than men to share their knowledge and financial gains with their family and communities, especially in developing countries/emerging markets. “Investment in women’s entrepreneurship is an important way for countries to exponentially increase the impact of new venture creation.”

• Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor-2007 Study  http://www.gemconsortium.org/about.aspx?page=special_topic_women

Women are poised to become the majority of the US workforce for the first time in history.

• Source: The Shriver Report
• http://www.awomansnation.com/business.php

Women with a bachelor degree (i.e. directly out of college) earn a median starting salary 17% less than a male with a bachelor degree.

• Source: The National Association of Colleges and Employers Journal
• http://www.naceweb.org/gender/

A SELECTION OF RECENT TWEETS:

@ChiefHotMomma: Wife out-earns hubby in 1/5 of households. Women and the Seismic Shift…http://ad.vu/ydsv

@ChiefHotMomma: Women are storming emerging-world boardrooms ad.vu/wvir @TheEconomist

@ChiefHotMomma: Women Call the Shots at Home; Public Mixed on Gender Roles in Jobs http://ad.vu/dmi9 Pew research

@ChiefHotMomma: The Pay Gap is Real -from @AAUW http://ad.vu/dpfc

SarahRobinson RT @ChiefHotMomma: FACT: Correlation between higher pay and act of seeking out a mentor. How to take action: http://ad.vu/xchk

Related Links:

A Boston Globe story references additional studies correlating the prevalence of executive women and company profitability:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/05/03/the_female_advantage/

A Study from Finland: Female Leadership and Firm Profitability details the benefit of removing obstacles to the advancement of women to top leadership.

http://www.eva.fi/files/2133_Analyysi_no_003_eng_FemaleLeadership.pdf

Will Business Celebrate, or Tolerate, Our Daughters?

http://hotmommas.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/25d-will-business-celebrate-or-tolerate-our-daughters/

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The Hot Mommas Project. We make women’s stories teachable with the goal of passing that knowledge onto the next generation through classrooms, leadership groups, and social media. Our project is the winner of a national Coleman Foundation Case Award and we’ve been featured on NPR, in the Washington Post Magazine, and in leading Prentice Hall textbooks.  We are an entrepreneurial venture housed at the George Washington University School of Business and are currently the world’s largest collection of teachable role models and virtual mentors for women and girls. More:  http://www.hotmommasproject.org/about.aspx

How to get involved:

1. Join: Action alerts on the Sisterhood of Success. It’s taken 10 years for us to crack the confidence code, and now it’s time to get down to business.

2. Accept your mission: Our next seminar October 15 in DC (or virtual).

3. Donate to our .org research: The Hot Mommas Project research is housed at the GW School of Business Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence.  Have a group  interested in sponsoring a Hot Mommas Project awards event or category? Arts, STEM, students, many others. Please email us.

Tagged: business, report, research, statistics, women

Posted in: Career & Leadership