Women Employment Argument

Boys: Pro equal hiring 
Girls: Leave it how it is

Pros:

• Out of the S&P 500 companies women only hold 4.4% of the CEO positions. That equates to only 22 out of the 500 companies on the list
• Men and women each make up about half of the population, so it is logical for women politicians to be more prominent for equal representation of the citizens’ needs
• Only 14.2% of the top five leadership positions at the companies in the S&P 500 are held by women
• Progress in just letting the problem work itself out has been extremely slow over the last 80 years and is almost nonexistent
• This article examines many explanations for why women have not risen to the top, including lack of line experience, inadequate career opportunities, gender differences in linguistic styles and socialization, gender-based stereotypes, the old boy network at the top, and tokenism. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006226129868 - to overcome basic differences, women should be put in higher management positions so that firms can get acclimated to the changed climate
• Maggie Wilderotter, one of the 24 women in the top five highest positions in any company is being replaced by a man and therefore progress is going from next to nothing to backwords
• Stereotypes of women are one of the main things holding them back and as society we are not dropping the stereotypes anytime soon so action needs to be taken
• Women do make it into management and board rooms, but with such an overpowering ratio in favor of men, it is the same as not having any women at all, as the men can speak over women and get recognition from their “good old boy” attitudes
• Companies with women in upper level management positions significantly outperform those with all men in the upper level positions so there should be a push for more women in upper level positions

• “As there were more women, the first woman became more active. They were all more active as the number of women increased. It's a group dynamic. When you bring on one of any demographic group, they’re trying to figure out how they fit. With more, that's not an issue. They were more vocal, more willing to push their issues when more women were added to the board. More relaxed” (Male CEO). -competency is rarely the issue, it is only a factor of upper management selecting only who they want.
  
  
  Cons:
  • Women have caught up with men in terms of education. In fact, in the United States and a number of other countries, women now actually surpass men in educational achievement. (Harvard Law School Blog)
  • So there is not a problem with female achievement. The problem enters in when young adults try to balance work and family, and women end up carrying nearly all of the caregiving responsibilities. (Harvard Law School Blog)
  • Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force climbed during the 1970s and 1980s, reaching 60 percent in 2000. (International Labor Organization)
  • One in five women are working part time... while at the start of the recession less than one in ten women were doing so. (International Labor Organization)
  • The overall unemployment rate for women is lower than men’s and they are also less likely to be among the long-term unemployed. (International Labor Organization)
  • The March 26th issue of Time Magazine proclaims on its front cover “The Richer $ex- Women are overtaking men as America’s breadwinners.
  • “Almost 40% of wives make more money than their husbands…Women today make up almost 60% of U.S. college students and earn the majority of doctorates and master’s degrees…In the majority of U.S. metro areas, single, childless women in their 20s make more per dollar than their male peers.” (Time Magazine)
  • Even more importantly the percentage of managers who are women has risen from 35% to 38% of the last twenty years
  
  
  • Cindy Padnos, entrepreneur, found that women-operated, venture-backed high tech companies average 12 percent higher annual revenues. They also use on average one-third less capital than male counterparts' startups.
  • From a corporate perspective, there's a tremendous benefit to having a diverse workforce
  • "It's almost impossible to think a corporation can be successful in identifying the right products and meeting the market needs when the market is half women and half men."
  • Bryant said a company's workforce must reflect the market it serves.
  • "That's what makes it easy for corporations to rally behind 'let's grow the diverse population of our employee base'," Bryant said.
  
  
  "Con Argument is saying that women don’t need the laws to change in order to be hired because women are becoming increasingly educated, the workplace would benefit with diversity and if the employment rate of women continues, more women will be employed than men (The overall unemployment rate for women is lower than men’s and they are also less likely to be among the long-term unemployed. (International Labor Organization))."