the changing role of women in the workplace

7/28/2019 The Changing Role of Women in the Workplace

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Sneha Kalyan

The ChangingRole of

Women in theWorkplaceCopyright 2009. Gatton Student Research Publication. Volume 1, Number 1.Gatton College

of Business & Economics, University of Kentucky

February 26, 2007

Prepared for ENG 203


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Gatton Student Research Publication| 14

INTRODUCTION

On August 15, 2006, the Washington Post reported Indra K. Nooyi, chief financial officer of PepsiCo

Inc., will become the companys chief executive in October, making her the second-highest-ranking

woman in the Fortune 500 (Joyce). For the women in the United States, 40 years ago, the achievement

of becoming a CEO of any company was not even possible. Indra has broken the invisible glass ceiling.This invisible glass ceiling has been a discriminatory barrier that has kept women from moving to higher

level positions in the business world. However, women like Indra and many others in our nation have

broken this barrier in order to achieve the highest employment status in our nation.

Objective

Many of us do not realize the rate and extent of advancement that women have made in the American

work force to reach the top of the corporate ladder. The purpose of this report is to present the fact that

the role of women in the workplace has become more dominant. The contributing factors to womens

progression in the workforce are higher education, the increase of attaining higher level positions, and

grasping entrepreneurship opportunities.

Process, Scope and Limitation

Since this report is meant to be informational, the process that I have used to construct this report has

mainly been research consisting of statistical data from the Womens Bureau, the U.S. Census reports,

articles from major newspapers and other internet sources. The scope of this report includes the

advancement of women in the United States labor force mainly pertaining to the past two to five years,

while highlighting the advancement women have made in comparison to past decades.

WOMEN IN HIGH PLACES

The Fortune 500 companies in our nation are among the largest corporations in the world. The number

of women CEOs from the year 1995 to 2005 in the Fortune 500 companies has practically doubled from

8.7% to 16.4% (Women CEOs). This rapid increase in women CEOs is a definite sign of breaking the

glass ceiling. For ages, the glass ceiling has been a discriminating barrier that has kept women from

moving up on the business ladder. However, in my opinion women had already broken through the

glass ceiling in reference to the fact that more women today are holding top positions in the business

world. Women are changing the viewpoint of society. According to CNNMoney.com, in 2006, among

the 50 most powerful women in the Fortune 500 companies, the top 7 women held position of chiefexecutive officers.


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Table 1. Top Seven Most Powerful Women in Fortune 500

Source: h ttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen/2006/full_list/index.html

As you can see in the table on the left, these women are holding some of the most powerful white collar

professional jobs in our country. Indra Nooyi, whom I mentioned in the introduction, was the Top

Woman CEO in 2006. Indra had joined PepsiCo. in 1994 and Washington Post describes her progress as

in the chess game in business, she moves ahead of other people (Joyce). In 2001, Indra became chief

financial officer and in 2006, she reached the top of the ladder.

Women as Entrepreneurs

One of the most honored women in the world today is Oprah Winfrey, and in 2006 she was ranked the

8th most powerful woman in the Fortune 500. The story of Oprah Winfrey is a perfect model of a

successful woman entrepreneur. Oprah has engaged in a variety of business opportunities in the

entertainment world, such as acting in movies, creating her own magazine (O Magazine) and last but not

least her own television talk show (Oprah Winfrey Show.) The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the

number one talk show for 18 seasons, has won dozens of Emmys, and is seen by an estimated 30 million

viewers a week in the United States and is broadcast internationally in 111 countries(Allen.) Oprahs

extraordinary financial achievements are shared among the entire world due to the generousphilanthropist she has become.

Oprahs story models one of the most effective ways women have broken the glass ceiling through their

powerful involvement in the concept of entrepreneurship. In business today, 10.4 million firms (50% or

more) are owned by women, accounting for 40.2% of all businesses in the U.S. Also, women-owned

businesses are providing jobs for more than 12.8 million people, and bringing in 1.9 trillion dollars in

Name Corporation and Position

Rank in 50 Most Powerful Women in

Fortune 500

Indra Nooyi CEO of PepsiCo. (PEP) 1st

Anne Mulcahy Chairman and CEO of Xerox (XRX) 2nd

Meg Withman CEO and President of eBay (EBAY) 3rd

Pat Woertz President and CEO of Archer Daniels

Midland (ADM)

4th

Irene Rosenfeld CEO of Kraft Foods (MO) 5th

Brenda Barnes Chairman and CEO of Sara Lee (SLE) 6th

Andrea Jung Chairman and CEO of Avon (AVP) 7th


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sales (CfWBR.) The magnitude of the statistics above portray a large successful result from womens

innovation in the business world as entrepreneurs.

Between 1997 and 2006 the rate that women-owned businesses have grown was 42.3% compared to

the rate of 23.3 % for all business firms. Women-owned businesses grew in terms of employment at the

rate of 0.4% compared to 12.3% of all business firms. Also in terms of sales there was a growth of 4.4%in women-owned businesses compared to 15.6 % of all business firms (CfWBR.)

Women have incorporated innovative business skills, which have had major progress in the service

industry. According to the Center for Womens Business Research, The largest share of 51% or more

women-owned firms is in the service sector. More than two-thirds (69.0%) of these firms (5.3 million)

are in services; 14.4% (1.1 million) are in retail trade; and 7.7% (0.6 million) are in real estate, rental, and

leasing.

ADVANCEMENT AND EDUCATION

One of the many of the explanations behind the advancement of women in the work place goes hand in

hand with the fact that more and more women are taking on the challenge of pursuing higher education

degrees. In the past, women were more likely to hold blue collar jobs consisting of secretarial work or

clerical jobs. However, today women are attaining professional degrees in order to gain access to work

in professional jobs.

Degrees

Figure 1: Female Education 1980 vs. 2005

Source: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_246.asp

As the graph above points out, in terms of earning a degree, women are reaching for higher educational

degrees in post-college education. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the

Female Education 1980 vs. 2005

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

Masters First Professional Doctoral

Type of Degree

Number of Degrees

1980

2005


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number of degrees attained by women has increased quite drastically in 25 years. The number of

masters degrees achieved by women in 1980 was 147,332 versus 350,000 in 2005, an increase of 40.7%.

In terms of first professional degrees, in 1980 there were 17,415 versus 44,900 in 2005, an increase of

44.1%. Doctoral degrees also increased from 9,272 in 1980 to 23,300 in 2005, an increase of 43%.

WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE

A definite indicator of women moving up the ladder is the movement of women into upper level

positions. In 2000, the number of women in management, professional and related occupations was

21,937,973, and in 2005 the number rose to 23,582,858, which presents an approximate increase of

3.61% . In the service sector of the labor force, in 2000 there were 10,930,539 women compared to

12,578,880, an increase of about 7.01%. In sales and office occupations, there were 22,270,422 women

in comparison to 22,271,789 in 2005, which only made up a .003% increase in the entire sector. From

the numbers that Ive just presented to you above and in the graphs below, it can be established that

women rose in management, professional occupations, and service occupations at significantly higher

rate than women in the sales and office occupations sector. As for the remaining two sectors, they

experienced a decline in womens labor. Thus, the decline in lower level jobs and rise in higher level jobs

portrays a picture of womens labor force escalating to the peak.

Figure 2: Female Labor Distribution

Source: http://factfinder.census.gov/

Female Labor Distribution (2000)

36%

18%

38%

0%

8%

Management,

professional, and

related occupations

Service occupations

Sales and office

occupations

Farming, fishing, and

forestry occupations

Production,

transportation, and

material moving

occupations

Female Labor Distribution (2005)

37%

20%

36%

0%

7%

Management,

profess ional, and

related occupations

Service occupations

Sales and office

occupations

Farming, fishing, and

forestry occupations

Production,

transportation, and

material moving

occupations


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FUTURE PROJECTIONS

The womens labor force has been growing at a positive rate for many years now. In 2003, there were

64.4 million women in the labor force, and by 2004, there were 64.7 million. In 2005, there were 66

million women employed, which was an increase of approximately 1.2% (Womens Bureau.) The

Womens Bureau has estimated some future projections about women in the labor force. As you cansee on the graph on the next page, the Womens Bureau projects that by year 2014, the number of

women in the labor force is projected to increase from 64.4 million in 2003 to 75.9 million by 2014. Also,

the womens labor participation rate is estimated to increase from 59.2% in the 2004 to 59.7% by the

year 2014.

Figure 4: Future Projection of Women in the Work Force

Womens Salary

Even though women have broken through barriers in the sense of gaining higher level positions there is

still a gender gap that doesnt allow women to be compensated equally to their male counterparts in

the business world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2005, womens median earning was

$22,000 compared to $32,850 for men. Thus, one of the future advancements that can be expected forwomen in the labor force is the achievement of equal pay for equal work in the American work force.

CONCLUSION

According to the achievement and advancement women have made over the years, the age old concept

of the glass ceiling has already been broken. Women at the top holding CEO positions such as Indra

Nooyi and entrepreneurs like Oprah Winfrey set successful examples for millions of women in our

64.4 64.7

66

75.9

60

66.67

73.33

80

2003 2004 2005 2014

Future Projection of Women in the Work Force

Year

Source: www.dol.gov/wb

Num

berofWomeninLaborForce(inmillions)

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nation. Womens attainment of higher education is a dominant factor that has been and still continues

to impact the increase in higher status in the work place. Women play a dominant role in the American

labor force not only by participating in huge numbers, but also by their incorporation of innovative

business skills and ideas that works together in order to make our economy successful.


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WORKS CITED

Allen, Scott. Oprah Winfrey - About.com Readers' Most Admired Entrepreneur. About 24 Feb 2007.

CNNMoney: Fortune 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. 16 Oct. 2006.

Digest of Educational Statistics Tables and Figures: 2005. National Center for Educational Statistics.

24 Feb 2007< http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_246.asp>

Earning in the Past 12 Mounths. U.S. Census Bureau: FactFinder 9 Feb 2007

Employment Occupation by Sex: 2000. U.S. Census Bureau: FactFinder 22 Feb 2007

Employment Occupation and Median Earnings by Sex: 2005. U.S. Census Bureau: FactFinder 22 Feb

2007

Hot Jobs for the 21 st Century, 2004-2014U.S. Department of Labor: Womens Labor. November

2005. 12 Feb 2007


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Joyce, Amy. Fortune 500 Gains Female CEO in New PepsiCo Chief. Washington Post 15 Aug 2006. 15

Feb 2007. < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/08/14/

AR2006081400252.html?referrer=emailarticle>

National Numbers. Center for Womens Business Research. 2006. 23 Feb 2007.

"Women CEOs." Infoplease. 20002007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.

21 Feb. 2007

Women in the Labor Force in 2005. U.S. Department of Labor: Womens Labor. November 2005. 12

Feb 2007

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