Women Lose More Jobs in Recessions

The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee recently released a report confirming that women are more vulnerable to job loss during recession. Unlike the economic downturns of the 1980s and 1990s, the 2001 recession was particularly detrimental to women because they not only lost more jobs than men but also did not see their employment rates recover to their pre-recession peak. Since women bring home more than one-third of family income and single mothers are often the sole breadwinners, women’s unemployment also has harsh implications for the economic security of families and communities. Greater job losses for women translate into reduced government revenue and cuts in spending on programs and services that benefit women and their families.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/business/22jobs.html?scp=1&sq=women+and+jobs&st=nyt
http://jec.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=80a7a0cd-6125-495d-bca5-09af2c0393f9

Study Suggests Strategies for Hiring Women in Sciences

A recent study tracking the career paths of more than 3,000 male and female applicants for jobs in science, mathematics and engineering fields found that women were less likely to apply and more likely to decline job offers than men. The study, conducted by sociologists Christy M. Glass of Utah State University and Krista Lynn Minnotte of the University of North Dakota, suggested strategies for recruiting more women into science and technology jobs. Although they determined that employers were willing to hire women, there was a lack of understanding of where and how to market jobs to female candidates. Recommendations ranged from advertising job postings in publications specifically geared towards women in the sciences to including at least one woman on search committees.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/05/women
http://aaa.main.usu.edu/Assessment/Fac_Vitas/SSWA/GlassChristy.pdf http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/leaders_entry.php?id=6453&area=All

Women Leaving Science Careers

The Center for Work-Life Policy has found that more than half of women who choose careers in science, engineering, and technology drop out. The study identifies five major causes—hostile “macho” work environments, severe isolation, lack of career path guidance and orientation, systems of reward that emphasize risk-taking, and extreme work pressures—and proposes fourteen new initiatives to address these challenges. The paper “Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology,” is published by the Harvard Business Review.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3100

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/index.php/section/research_pubs

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/documents/AthenaPressRelease-April30.pdf

High-Ranking Women Lose Jobs on Wall Street

Recent instability in the financial services sector has had a negative impact on women in corporate leadership. One of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street, Lehman Brothers chief financial officer Erin Callan, was recently removed from her post after the company suffered a $2.8 billion loss in the second quarter. The change came just months after Morgan Stanley forced the retirement of co-president Zoe Cruz. While no one should be allowed to remain in a job just to fill a quota, experts say that the expectations for women executives are higher and that women have to be “twice as credentialed” to even be considered for top jobs. Although women make up 46% of the workforce, only 15.4% of them hold Fortune 500 senior officer positions. “There’s so few women [that] when one of them gets fired [from an executive position], the percentage drops 10 percent,” said Gail Evans, former CNN executive vice president.
http://www.mainstreet.com/wall-street-women-under-siege

The Myth of Women "Opting Out" of the Workplace

When Lisa Seftel was planning for her first child, she and her employer made a deal that she would work three days in the office and two days at home. This arrangement would allow her to have full employer benefits and share the childcare with her husband. In 2003, however, her employer went back on his word, telling her she could work five days a week in the office or three days at home. Like so many other women, Seftel was forced to quit her job because she could not afford to pay for childcare and would lose her family’s health insurance if she worked only three days. While a plethora of news reports has explained the recent trend of women leaving the workforce as "opting out," new research has emerged showing that the workplace is at fault for failing to meet women’s needs.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3640

The Feminine Critique

A steady stream of research on how women are perceived in the workplace concludes that women face an uphill battle. There are still no straightforward answers about why there are not more women in positions of leadership, or why they are perceived differently from men in leadership. Click here for more.

Black, female leaders battle Baltimore urban woes

As of this year, Baltimore’s top elected posts- Mayor, City Council President, Chief Prosecutor and Comptroller are all held by Black women. The jury is still out on how their presence may affect growing crime and poverty rates, but many are hopefully that the shift in leadership is for the better. Click here for more.

Argentina's first lady wins top job

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, former senator and first lady, won Argentina's presidential election on Sunday. Fernandez won over 40% of the vote and promises to build on the economic legacy of her husband’s presidency. Much of Fernandez’s support came from Argentina’s poor and working class citizens, who credit her husband with generating jobs. Please click here for more.

Why Men Dominate Math and Science Fields

A new study suggests that women are less likely to participate in science and engineering settings where they are outnumbered by men. The study published in Psychological Science notes that in order to bring gender equality to science and engineering, changes must occur in the social and culture aspect of the fields. Click here for more.

M.B.A. Programs Pay Off for Women Seeking a Return to Wall Street

Women returning to the workforce after leaving to fulfill family obligations are now being aided by executive MBA programs. Programs like Back in Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth offer a curriculum that combines academics and career opportunities. With a median age of 47 and an average of eight years out of the workforce more than half of the programs participants found jobs with high-level companies such as Goldman Sachs.
Please click here for more information.

UPDATE: Women's March Into Office Slows

Although women represent the majority of votes in major elections, they only hold 1 out of every 6 elected Federal positions and 1 out of every 4 elected State positions. Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, a NCRW member center, observes, “We’ve hit a plateau.” Although Hillary Clinton could be elected President in 2008, and Nancy Pelosi is in little danger of losing her Speaker of the House title, several other women governors, senators, and congresswomen are at risk of losing their positions in the next election.

This plateau has occurred for a number of reasons, according to experts. Several of the major issues ruling the 2008 elections, including Iraq, national security, and immigration, are issues that have traditionally been gendered “masculine,” and therefore, women candidates are not perceived as desirable or capable. Research by political scientist Jennifer Lawless at Brown University shows that women are less likely than men to enter into competitive races, and women are even less likely to enter into the race when opposing another woman. Despite women’s reluctance to run for office, however, Lawless’ research shows that women candidates are as likely to win as men.

Click here to read the full article.