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.

There are 18 female – or 3.6% –  CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in 2012 up from 12 in 2011.

• Source: Huffington Post  and Catalyst

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/

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://benchmarks.thewhitehouseproject.org/

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

• Source: World’s largest HR Study by SHRM, BCG, and WFPMA
• Links N/A

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, L., Mueller, S., & Moss, S. (2002). The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 1, 2.
• Cited here and Cited here

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

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/

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

• Source: The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation
• Summary: By Maria Shriver in Huffington Post

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:

• 1970s:< 5% working wives out earned husbands, today nearly 40% do. Book: The Richer Sex:  http://t.co/iurWoLD6 

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

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

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

• Women-Owned Companies Lead Sector Sector Growth in 7 of 13 most critical industries.  New @AmexOPEN Research http://ow.ly/aCL8d 

• Men spend 30 minutes more a day on leisure activities vs women http://ow.ly/dg0c9

Related Links:

• Hot Mommas Project “Power Plays For Women” Series
• Hot Mommas Project “Blog Mentoring” Series: Get Advice via Blog
• A Boston Globe story references additional studies correlating the prevalence of executive women and company profitability.

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Hot Mommas = Dynamic Women. We increase confidence of Gen Y, Gen X, and beyond, and can *prove* it. How did we crack the code?

• 1) Exposure to role models and mentors. We are the world’s LARGEST women’s case study library (HQed at the George Washington University School of Business, CFEE).
• 2) We measurably increase confidence and success factors (through our proprietary suite of SisU branded learning tools and events).

More about us. Join the movement.