The New Eve - Lewis Robert [5]
But then new winds began to blow. Changes in the law expanded a woman's horizons. Women won the right to vote (by one vote) in 1920 and with it gained a new voice and powerful influence in shaping society. Growing educational opportunities opened up a woman's mind to new possibilities. The advent of World War II gave thousands of women new experiences. Many discovered they could do “a man's job” by working in factories and running assembly lines, building and flying airplanes, managing businesses, and constructing the war machine their men unleashed half a world away.
After the war, technology opened up a woman's time. Chores that once took hours were now finished with the touch of a button. A woman's schedule was now freer than ever before for “something more.” But what?
Finally, the feminist movement of the ’70s and ’80s opened up a woman's fighting spirit. She no longer had to stay quiet, stay at home, or stay married. Where society refused to change to accommodate her, she herself confronted and fought to change it. “I am woman, hear me roar!” Helen Reddy sang as newly liberated women broke into male-dominated domains, overturned rigid social structures, and took new ground for their ever-growing ambitions. Today that “roar” is louder than ever.
Now in the twenty-first century, women like you have more rights, choices, and freedoms than ever before. In many areas, women have not only achieved equality with men but have also surpassed their male counterparts. For example:
Workforce. Half of the American workforce is female. From 1976 to 1999 the percentage of American women who were working soared from 57 percent to 77 percent.3
Equal Pay … Greater Pay. A third of working wives outearn their working husbands.4 This percentage is expected to rise significantly in the next decade.
Business Ownership. Nearly half of all American businesses are at least 50 percent owned by women. These firms, small and large, employ 19.1 million people and generate $2.5 trillion in annual revenue.5
Business Management. By 2001 women held close to 50 percent of all high-paying managerial, executive, and administrative jobs. As of 2004, 15 percent of Fortune 500 companies had a female CEO, a 20 percent increase since 2002. Top companies are increasingly topped by women!6
Church Involvement and Lay Leadership. After a nationwide survey, George Barna concluded that “women shoulder most of the responsibility for the health and vitality of the Christian faith in the United States.”7
Education. From kindergarten to graduate school, females are achieving far more than males; so much so that one leading publication says males are now the “second sex.”8
College Enrollment. Women outnumber men by 30 percent in American colleges. That adds up to two million more women attending college than men. That's a stunning turnaround from the 1960s, when 66 percent of college students were men. Furthermore, female students are 33 percent more likely to graduate than their male counterparts.9 The New York Times summed it up this way in a front-page headline: “At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust.” The Times went on to say, “Academically, boys are about where they were 30 years ago, but girls are just on a tear, doing much, much better.”10
Bachelor's Degrees. In fields of study ranging from biology to business, history to social science, and psychology to education, women are earning the majority of bachelor's degrees.11 How many more? At least 200,000 more bachelor's degrees are awarded to women than men, according to the National Center of Education Statistics.12
Master's Degrees. Women now earn more than 50 percent of all master's degrees.13
MBA Enrollment. Women now compose 35 percent of all students in MBA programs.14 In some business schools that percentage is much higher. For instance, at the Whittemore School of Business, one of the top one hundred graduate business schools in the nation, 61 percent of its full-time students