Tag Archives: glass ceiling

01.21.2013 | Gender Issues: The Second Glass Ceiling

By Lilli DeBode, guest blogger, senior at Kent Place School

A recent study shows that the glass ceiling not only pertains to employment, but also to marriage. The results demonstrate that as women earn more than their husbands, the frequency of those marriages decreases. In other words, there are tons of couples in which the man makes a greater or equal amount of money than the woman, but there are many fewer couples as income reverses. (It should also be pointed out that all of these couples were in the age range of 22-34 years old, so the presence of children could not really skew the numbers). The study also makes the equally upsetting point that as women start to out-earn their husbands, the rate of divorce increases. Interestingly enough, it did not make a difference how much the disparity between the two paychecks was. Just in general, if women earned more, the occurrence of divorce increased.

The results also show that a woman who has the potential to out-earn her husband often either decides to work less or quit her job altogether. Why is this? It could be because she realizes how detrimental (and possibly terminal) it could be for her relationship. Another explanation proposed by the study was that in marriages in which the woman makes the smaller paycheck, the woman is the one who does the majority of the household chores. Therefore, it only makes sense that if the woman is the one who earns more money, then the man should be the one to take care of the chores. Oddly, this is not the case. Just because of social norms, women, even if they work longer hours and earn more money, are still expected to complete the household tasks.

So what does this mean for the economy? A significant proportion of women are not working at full potential, thus under-utilizing our nation’s production possibilities. Especially at a time in which our economy desperately needs a productivity surge, gender norms and stereotypes should not be hindering our economy to this extent.

Sources and Resources: To read more about this issue, New York Magazine has a very interesting article about the troubles which can stem from having a relationship in which the woman is the “alpha.” The Economist also has an article which discusses the issues above in more depth.

Note: The title was slightly edited after this entry was posted.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: gender issues, gender wage gap, glass ceiling, production possibilities, working women
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12.24.2012 | Gender Issues: A Swedish and French Mystery

What happens to a woman’s career trajectory when her job is family-friendly? The results have not been what policy makers expected.

In their work lives, Swedish women receive generous paid maternity leave and and can opt for flexible work hours. Politically, the Swedish Parliament has gender balance as do 2 major Swedish political parties’ electoral slates. In France, 17 of President Hollande’s 34 cabinet ministers are female and the French Constitution was amended in 2010 to mandate corporate and public gender equality. In France, Sweden and across the EU, there is a commitment to end gender inequality.

And yet, in France and Sweden, in private industry, men are in charge. Among France’s 87 universities, only 8 presidents are female. In large French law firms, a vast minority of the partners are female. Even when their boards implement gender balance quotas, large corporations have few, if any, females CEOs.

Social scientists are not sure why women are not rising to the top when the work world has made it easier to combine work and family. One theory is children. When labor force participation enables women to divide their time and energy between work and the family, they select the balance. As a result, many do not become the professional alpha women who can compete against committed males who rise to the top.

Monday Gender Issues Posts

Hetty Green and the Pay Gap: 12/17

Sources and Resources: This excellent discussion of “The Plight of the Alpha Female” appeared recently in the City Journal while this paper, “Is There a Glass Ceiling in Sweden?” presents details on the the surprising results of the Swedish family-friendly work environment. Also, you might want to look at an avalanche of gender stats and ideas in this most recent 300+ page OECD report, “Closing the Gender Gap.”

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: alpha females, Claudia Goldin, feminism, flextime, France, French Constitution, gender gap, glass ceiling, Kay Hymowitz, Marissa Mayer, President Hollande, Sheryl Sandberg, Sweden, work life balance
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10.25.2012 | Empowering One Billion Women

Name a nation.

No matter which country you choose, you probably would see that women are underemployed. And still then, you would be looking only at the tip of the iceberg. Female labor force underutilization relates to a host of facts about a society that the consulting firm, Booz & Co. compiled in a recent report. Although I was not entirely convinced that all of their variables were quantifiable, I was quite comfortable with their basic premise. The world will be much better off when the one billion or so women that will enter the global economy during the next decade are appropriately empowered.

To assess female empowerment in 128 countries, Booz & Co. used input and output variables to create a Third Billion Index. Input scores involved components like female literacy, access to credit, laws about job opportunities; output numbers included male/female pay equity, the glass ceiling in business and in government, the types of jobs women occupy. Shown by their diagram below, based on the Index rank, Booz also grouped countries to display, for example, who was, “On the Path to Success,” or “At the Starting Gate.”

Crucially, the Booz report points out that the positive externalities of empowering women ripple far beyond the GDP. For example, women with income tend to invest more in their children. As a result, the impact on future generations is geometric.

Their conclusions? The top ranked countries are Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand. The US is #30.

Sources and Resources: The Booz & Co. report, titled “Empowering the Third Billion: Women and the World of Work 2012,” is thought-provoking and, in some ways, surprising. I recommend that you take a look at it. For a much briefer summary, here is an Economist article and the source of my GDP graph below.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: Australia, Booz & Co., childhood poverty, Empowering the Third Billion: Women and the World of Work 2012, GDP growth, gender pay gap, glass ceiling, global labor force, human capital, literacy rates, new zealand, Norway, Sweden, Third Billion Index
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06.24.2012 | What Do Kids Cost Us?

Telling us that, “Women Still Can’t Have it All,” Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter explains why she left her position as policy planning director for the State Department. In addition to her 24/7 job in Washington DC, she was a mother, a wife, and a weekend commuter to her Princeton NJ home. Nearing the 2-year mark when she would have lost tenure, she decided to return to Princeton to full time teaching, writing and speaking engagements. In her Atlantic article she says she was most concerned that she had not been the parent her adolescent son needed. In an excellent 6 page discussion, she says that for women to come even close to “having it all,” society has to change.

And that is where I started thinking about opportunity cost–the next best alternative that a decision requires you to sacrifice.

Here is how I got there:

I read the Slaughter article after contemplating a new US Department of Agriculture report that said the cost of parenting children up to the age of 17 is close to $300,000 for a middle income 2 parent family. Discussing the USDA report, the WSJ’s “numbers guy” added that the cost approaches $900,000 when you go to age 22. And yes, he does say that even then the expense is higher because forgone income and other hidden costs are not included.

At that point, I started to suspect that we were only looking at the tip of the cost iceberg. Yes, we all have the same categories of child-related dollar costs: housing, education, caregiving, food, health care, transportation, clothing.

But then, person specific opportunity cost takes over. For each of us, the parenting decision involves an array of career and personal choices. Each requires many sacrificed alternatives that may or may not have presented tough choices.

I wonder whether the changes Dr. Slaughter proposes will just take us to a new set of opportunity costs. How can we judge where the lowest cost for society and for different women lies, especially when the benefits–such as the maternal satisfaction, the happiness, maybe the old age care–differ for each of us?

Instead of talking about “having it all,” maybe we mean “having it more.” Because of opportunity cost, nobody ever “has it all.” Children will always be “expensive.”

Anne-Marie Slaughter explains her parenting costs and concerns in an Atlantic article that started a debate described by the NY Times. For the quantifiable costs of parenting, here are the USDA report and the WSJ article.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: "Expenditure on Children By Families", Anne-Marie Slaughter, career ladder, career women, feminism, glass ceiling, opportunity cost, Sheryl Sandberg
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06.07.2012 | Do You Believe in “Pink Quotas?”

Italy has just declared its “pink quota.”

A new law mandates that by 2015, women should be one-third of all board members for listed and Italian state-owned firms. Currently, the total is somewhere between 3.7 and 6%. (Checking 2 sources, I found different statistics.)

Looking at how Australia and France have raised female board presence, which approach do you favor? Here are some facts:

Australia:

Legislative incentives.
Mandated diversity policy reporting.
Female board membership up by 5.3% from 2009-2011.
Currently at 13.8%.
A formal mentoring program is bringing female candidates to boards’ attention.

France:

Legislative fiat.
Female board membership has skyrocketed by 7.5% from 2009-2011.
Currently at 16.6%.
Mandated to rise to 40% by 2016.

Here are some interesting statistics from Catalyst, a group that gathers information about women:

Women on the Board (countries at the top of a 44 country list):

Country	% Board Seats Held By Women
Norway	40.1
Sweden	27.3
Finland	24.5
United States	16.1

Women on the Board (countries at the bottom a 44 country list):

Country	% Board Seats Held By Women
Japan	0.9
United Arab Emirates	0.8
Qatar	0.3
Saudi Arabia	0.1

A note: On the 44 country list, at #34, Italy is close to the bottom.

At first, I learned about Italy’s “pink quota” in a WSJ article. Here though, is the best report I accessed about women on corporate boards and the source of some statistics while the others came from Catalyst, a research organization that focuses on women. For further discussion on occupational and wage gender gaps, you could go to these econlife posts here and here.

Posted by: adminEcon
Tags: Australia, Catalyst, corporate boards, France, gender gap, glass ceiling, Italy, pink quotas
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