Quick Takes

Published: December 2011

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Women at the Top

• Women’s representation in Fortune 500 leadership positions has stagnated in recent years.

Women’s Share of Fortune 500 Leadership¹

 

• Women’s representation in Financial Post 500 leadership positions has slowly increased in recent years.

Women’s Share of Financial Post 500 Leadership²*

 

The U.S. Labor Force

• In 2010:
  • Women made up 46.7% of the labor force.³
  • 58.6% of all women 16 years and over were in the labor force, compared to 71.2% of all men.⁴
  • Women comprised 51.5% of management, professional and related positions.⁵ For racially and ethnically diverse women specifically:
• African-American women comprised 5.2% (2,751,000) of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations⁶
• Asian-American women comprised 2.8% (1,437,000) of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations⁷
• Latinas comprised 3.8% (1,952,000) of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations⁸
• In 2010:
  • 56.5% of all mothers with children under the age of 1 were in the labor force⁹
  • The labor force participation rate of parents with children under the age of 18 was 70.8% for mothers and 93.7% for fathers.¹⁰

Women in Law

• In the U.S., for the 2009-2010 academic year, women made up 47.2% of law school students.¹¹
• In 2010, women were 31.5% of all lawyers.¹²
• In 2011, women were 45.4% of all associates,¹³ and 19.5% of all partners¹⁴
• In Canada in 2009, women were 37.4% of all lawyers for whom gender data was recorded.¹⁵

Women and MBAs

• Women in the U.S. earned 36.8% of MBAs in 2010-2011.¹⁶
• Women in Canada earned 34.5% of MBA in 2010-2011.¹⁷

* The terminology was changed from "corporate officer" to "senior officer" in 2010 in an attempt to standardize across company type and provide Catalyst with more robust data. Catalyst has not found a statistically discernable difference in the overall officer population using these two terms.

 

Sources

¹Rachel Soares, Baye Cobb, Ellen Lebow, Hannah Winsten, Veronica Wojnas, and Allyson Regis, 2011 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners (Catalyst, 2011); Rachel Soares, Jan Combopiano, Allyson Regis, Yelena Shur, and Rosita Wong, 2010 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executives (Catalyst, 2010). Rachel Soares, Nancy M. Carter, and Jan Combopiano, 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Executives (Catalyst: 2009). Rachel Soares, Soares, Baye Cobb, Ellen Lebow, Hannah Winsten, Veronica Wojnas, and Allyson Regis, 2011 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors (Catalyst, 2011); Rachel Soares, Jan Combopiano, Allyson Regis, Yelena Shur, and Rosita Wong, 2010 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors (Catalyst, 2010). Rachel Soares, Nancy M. Carter, and Jan Combopiano, 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors (Catalyst: 2009). Catalyst, 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500 (2009). Catalyst, 2007 Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500 (2007). Catalyst, Board Directors (2006). Catalyst, 2005 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of the Fortune 500 (2006).

² Liz Mulligan-Ferry, Rachel Soares, Jan Combopiano, Jaye Cullen, and Laura Riker, 2010 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners (Catalyst, 2011). Laura Jenner and Rhonda Ferguson, 2008 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the FP500 (2009). Laura Jenner, Liz Mulligan-Ferry, and Rachel Soares, 2009 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Board Directors (Catalyst, 2010). Laura Jenner, Monica Dyer, and Lilly Whitham, 2007 Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors of the FP500: Voices From the Boardroom (Catalyst, 2008).

³ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, "Table 3: Employment Status of the Civilian Noninstitutional Population by Age, Sex, and Race," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁴ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, "Table 3: Employment Status of the Civilian Noninstitutional Population by Age, Sex, and Race," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁵ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, "Table 11: Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁶ Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2010 Current Population Survey, "Table 1: Employed and Experienced Unemployed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁷ Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2010 Current Population Survey "Table 1: Employed and Experienced Unemployed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁸ Bureau of Labor Statistics, unpublished tabulations from the 2010 Current Population Survey "Table 1: Employed and Experienced Unemployed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (2011).

⁹ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Employment Characteristics of Families, "Table 6: Employment Status of Mothers with Own Children under 3 Years Old by Single Year of Age of Youngest Child and Marital Status," 2009-2010 Annual Averages (2011).

¹⁰ Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Employment Characteristics of Families, "Table 5: Employment status of the population by Sex, Marital Status, and Presence and Age of Own Children under 18," 2008-2009 Annual Averages (2010).

¹¹ American Bar Association, "Enrollment and Degrees Awarded: 1963-2010."

¹² Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, "Table 11: Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity," Annual Averages 2010 (20119).

¹³ The National Association for Law Placement, "Law Firm Diversity Wobbles: Minority Numbers Bounce Back While Women Associates Extend Two-Year Decline" (November 3, 2011).

¹⁴ The National Association for Law Placement, "Law Firm Diversity Wobbles: Minority Numbers Bounce Back While Women Associates Extend Two-Year Decline" (November 3, 2011).

¹⁵ Federation of Law Societies of Canada, 2009 Law Societies Statistics.

¹⁶ The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, unpublished data (2011).

¹⁷ The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, unpublished data (2011).

UPDATED December 14, 2011