The Future Of Women
Originally “The Future Of Gender Relations”
Wayne Radinsky
Boulder Future Salon
July 23rd, 2011
Fact Checking



Each claim is presented in the form of a true/false
quiz. Each claim is made either by “feminists” or
their detractors (“anti-feminists”, “Mens Right
Activists” (MRA's), religious conservatives, etc).
Try to guess the correct answer and then we will see
what I was able to find on Google.
I tried to find impartial sources (sites not related to
the issue) and authoritative sources where possible
(often very difficult). Links to the sources are
provided so you won't say I'm making stuff up.
True or False?
Most of the world's billionaires are men.
TRUE



The world has 947 billionaires according to
FORBES.
10 are women.
Therefore billionaires are 98.94% men, 1.06%
women.
Few enough women, you can name
them each individually...

Alice Walton (Wal-Mart) $20.6 billion

Liliane Bettencourt (L'Oréal) $20.0 billion

Birgit Rausing (Tetra Laval) $13.0 billion

Savitri Jindal (Jindal Steel) $12.2 billion
Abigail Johnson
billion
(Fidelity Investments) $11.5

Susanne Klatten
(Altana) $11.1 billion

Iris Fontbona (Antofagasta) $11.0 billion

...

Jacqueline Mars (Mars, Inc) $11.0 billion

Anne Cox Chambers (Cox Enterprises) $10.0 billion

Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken (Heineken) $7.0
billion
True or False?
The majority of billionaires in the UNITED STATES
are men.
TRUE



The United States has 415 billionaires according to
FORBES.
4 of them are women.
Therefore US billionaires are 99.0% men, 1.0%
women.
...


Alice Walton (Wal-Mart) $20.6 billion
Abigail Johnson
billion
(Fidelity Investments) $11.5

Jacqueline Mars (Mars, Inc) $11.0 billion

Anne Cox Chambers (Cox Enterprises) $10.0 billion
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_billionaire
s
True or False?
Most FORTUNE 500 CEO's are men.
TRUE


15 FORTUNE 500 companies are run by women.
Therefore, FORTUNE 500 CEO's are 97% men, 3%
women.
So few women you can name them

Brenda Barnes (Sara Lee)

Carol Bartz (Yahoo)

Angela Braly (WellPoint)

Ursula Burns (Xerox)

Lynn Elsenhans (Sunoco)

Christina Gold (Reynolds American)

Andrea Jung (Avon)
...

Ellen Kullman (DuPont)

Carol Meyrowitz (TJX)

Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo)

Mary Sammons (Rite Aid)

Laura Sen (BJ's Wholesale Club)

Patricia Woertz (Archer Daniels Midland)
Source
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2
010/womenceos/
True or False?
Most members of Congress are men.
TRUE

The US House Of Representatives has 432
members.

72 are women.

Therefore, the House is 83.3% men, 16.7% women.

The Senate has 100 members.

17 are women.

Therefore, the Senate is 83% men, 17% women.
Sources



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112th_United_States_C
ongress
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_
States_House_of_Representatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_
States_Senate
True or False?
Most top Hollywood directors are men.
TRUE

For the Top 100 grossing films of 2007:

97.3% of directors were men (2.7% women)

88.8% of writers were men (11.2% women)

79.5% of producers were men (20.5% women), and

70.1% of speaking characters in the films were male
(29.9% were female).
Sources




http://annenberg.usc.edu/News%20and%20Events/N
ews/~/media/PDFs/07GenderKey.ashx
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/womenunderrepresented-in_n_475128.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/movies/13dargi
s.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stacy-smith/femaledirectors-writers_b_480848.html
True or False?
Women earn less than men.
TRUE


“During 2010, median weekly earnings of female
full-time workers were $669, compared with male
median weekly earnings of $824. Based on these
data, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly
earnings was 81.2.”
“Another measure of the earnings gap, the ratio of
women’s and men’s median annual earnings for fulltime year- round workers, was 77.0 in 2009 (data for
2010 are not yet available).”
Source
www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap2010-updated-march-2011
True or False?
Women are paid less than men for exactly the same
job.
TRUE


“In 2008, male physicians newly trained in New
York State made on average $16,819 more than
newly trained female physicians.”
The gender gap “cannot be explained by specialty
choice, practice setting, work hours, or other
characteristics.”
Source
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/2/193.abstrac
t
True or False?
Women do more of the world's work and produce more
of the world's food than men, yet earn and own less of
the world's wealth.
TRUE

“Women perform 66 percent of the world’s work,
produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent
of the income and own 1 percent of the property.”
(UNICEF)
Source
http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_poverty_
economics/facts_figures.php
True or False?
Women are penalized more for tough negotiating than
men are (in the US).
TRUE

“What we found across all the studies is men were
always less willing to work with a woman who had
attempted to negotiate than with a woman who did
not. They always preferred to work with a woman
who stayed mum. But it made no difference to the
men whether a guy had chosen to negotiate or not.”
Source
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900827.htm
l
True or False?
More women in the US graduate from college than
men.
TRUE


“National data in recent years show a 57%-43% split
favoring women, both in enrollments and graduation
rates.”
Hanna Rosin in her talk said 60% – she could have a
more recent figure than what I was able to find
independently.
Source
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-09whyboysfail09_ST_N.htm
True or False?
Most elementary school teachers in the US are women.
TRUE


“In Seattle, about 20 percent of elementary teachers
are men, a bit higher than the statewide average of
17 percent.”
“At the University of Washington, usually only 12
percent to 15 percent of the students coming through
the elementary prep teaching program are men.”
Source
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/252612_maleteachers19
.html
True or False?
Women in the US earn more postgraduate degrees
(masters degrees, MD, DDS, law degrees, PhD, EdD,
etc) than men.
True except for MD/DDS/law degrees

Associate's degrees – 62.1%

Bachelor's degrees – 57.2%

Master's degrees – 60.4%

MD, DDS & law degrees – 49.0%

Doctoral degrees (PhD, EdD, etc) – 52.3%

(data from 2008-9 school year)
Source
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/hats-off-to-winners-of-inaugural-google.html
True or False?
The percentage of computer science degrees awarded
to women has declined since the 1980's.
TRUE
Percentage of computer science degrees
awarded to women

1984 – 37.1%

1990 – 29.9%

1998 – 26.7%

2005 – 22.0%

2008 – 17.6%
Sources



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women,_girls_and_info
rmation_technology
http://blog.jolieodell.com/2010/08/31/women-intech-stats/
http://knol.google.com/k/the-decline-of-women-incomputer-science-from-1940-1982
True or False?
Unmarried young women in the United States who
have no children earn more than men.
TRUE

“In 2008, single, childless women between ages 22
and 30 were earning more than their male
counterparts in most U.S. cities, with incomes that
were 8% greater on average, according to an
analysis of Census Bureau data released Wednesday
by Reach Advisors, a consumer-research firm in
Slingerlands, N.Y.”
...

“According to a new analysis of 2,000 communities
by a market research company, in 147 out of 150 of
the biggest cities in the U.S., the median full-time
salaries of young women are 8% higher than those
of the guys in their peer group. In two cities, Atlanta
and Memphis, those women are making about 20%
more. This squares with earlier research from
Queens College, New York, that had suggested that
this was happening in major metropolises. But the
new study suggests that the gap is bigger than
previously thought, with young women in New...
(cont'd)

...with young women in New York City, Los Angeles
and San Diego making 17%, 12% and 15% more
than their male peers, respectively. And it also holds
true even in reasonably small areas like the RaleighDurham region and Charlotte in North Carolina
(both 14% more), and Jacksonville, Fla. (6%).”
Sources


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870
4421104575463790770831192.html
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2
015274,00.html
True or False?
More managers in the US are women than men.
TRUE


This was true for managerial positions where I could
find data.
Percentage of managers who are women in various
industries:

Medical and health services managers – 69.5%

Social and community service managers – 69.4%

Human resources managers – 66.8%

Advertising and promotions managers – 56.5%

Financial managers – 54.7%
Source
http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm
True or False?
More home buyers in the US are women than men.
TRUE

Married couple – 58%

Single female – 20%

Single male – 12%

Unmarried couple – 8%

Other – 2%


(Data for 2010 from National Association of
Realtors)
So, women are 54% of home buyers.
Source
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45801703/2010-NARHome-Buyer-Profile-Stats-and-Graphs
True or False?
Most consumer spending in the United States is
controlled by women.
TRUE

“American women are responsible for 83 percent of
all consumer purchases; they hold 89 percent of U.S.
bank accounts, 51 percent of all personal wealth.”
Source
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/06/women-willrule-the-world.html
True or False?
Fewer people in the US are getting married.
TRUE

Percentage of people who never married by age 44:

1970 – men 4.9%, women 6.3%

2000 – men 15.7%, women 10.9%

2010 – men 20.4%, women 13.8%
Source
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763219.html
True or False?
Most divorces in the United States are initiated by
women (that is, women do the initial divorce filing).
TRUE


70% of divorces are initiated by women, according
to a massive study in 2000 of 46,000 divorce cases
across 4 states.
A survey of other studies by the same researchers
going back to the 1960's show that women have
initiated divorce in the US more than 2/3rds of the
time in most states and decades that were studied.
Source
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/econ/586/001/Re
adings/Brinig.pdf
True or False?
In US divorce cases, women get custody more often
than men.
TRUE

Child custody is awarded to the mother in 70% of
cases,

is joint custody in 20% of cases,

and is awarded to the father in 10% of cases.
Source
http://www.lawfirms.com/resources/family/childcustody/child-custody-fathers.htm
True or False?
Women in the US receive alimony more often than
men, even when differences in earnings are taken into
account.
TRUE




“The percentage of alimony recipients who are male
rose to 3.6% during the five years ending in 2006.”
(Wall Street Journal)
So the recepient is female 96.4% of the time.
“In 2005 (the latest year for which data are
available), wives outearned their husbands in 33% of
all families.”
So, based on earnings, you would expect alimony
recipients to be women 66% of the time, not 96.4%
of the time.
Source
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB12070
0651883978623.html
True or False?
Men and women initiate domestic violence in the US in
equal amounts, but women get injured more because
men are larger and stronger.
FALSE




The first part is false but almost true, the second part
is true.
Men are responsible for initiating domestic violence
59% of the time, not 50%. (From the CDC).
Women get 74% of the injuries requiring medical
attention, not 59%.
This is according to the researcher's definitions of
domestic violence – not the legal definition from the
Violence Against Women's Act of 1994 (VAWA).
...

“692 women and 546 men aged 18-44 years were
interviewed. Among women, 43 reported being the
victim of a physically violent act by an intimate
partner during the preceding year. Of women
reporting such violence, 26 reported being shoved,
grabbed, or slapped; 17 reported being kicked,
bitten, punched, or beaten or threatened/assaulted
with a knife, gun, or other object. In comparison, 29
men reported physical violence by an intimate
partner, of whom 13 reported more severe forms of
violence. Among women reporting physical violence
by an intimate partner, ...
...

… Among women reporting physical violence by an
intimate partner, 23 reported injuries to their head or
face or injuries causing pain on other parts of the
body lasting longer than 1 hour; 4 men who
experienced physical violence reported being
injured. During the 12 months preceding the survey,
medical attention to treat injuries sustained from
such violence was sought by 7 women and 2 men.”
Source
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/000435
27.htm
True or False
More women than men are victims of stalking.
TRUE



8 percent of women and 2 percent of men in the
United States have been stalked at some time in their
life.
1 out of every 12 U.S. women (8.2 million) has been
stalked at some time in her life, and 1 out of every
45 U.S. men (2 million) has been stalked at some
time in his life.
(1998 NVAW survey)
Source
https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/169592.txt
True or False?
More men than women in the US commit suicide.
TRUE

Males in the United States committed suicide 3.93
times more than females in 2005. (17.7 per 100,000
vs 4.5 per 100,000).
Source
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicidein-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml
True or False?
Men in the US have shorter lives than women.
TRUE

Life expectancy in the US is 75.6 years for men,
80.8 years for women.
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_
expectancy
True or False?
Most homeless people in the US are men.
TRUE


76% of the homeless population is single men.
Women, married men and male children are part of
the other 24%.
Source
http://nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html
True or False?
Most people in prison in the US are men.
TRUE

93% of the US prison population is male.

7% female.
Source
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/p08.pdf
True or False?
Men in the US are victims of violence more than
women (rape excluded).
TRUE

Men are victims of homicide 3.9 times more than
women in the United States (9.0 vs 2.3 homicides
per 100,000 population, data from 2005).
Source
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/tables/vsexta
b.cfm
True or False?
Most people who die on the job in the US are men.
TRUE

In 2008, 92.6% of on the job fatalities were men,
7.4% were women.
2 memorable examples:


April 5th, 2010: Explosion in Masey Energy's Upper
Big Branch mine in Virgina
29 people dead...
...

Christopher Bell, Edward Dean Jones, Ronald Lee
Maynor, Joe Marcum, Greg Brock, William "Griff"
Griffith, Ricky Workman, Howard "Boone" Payne
Jr., Steven J. Harrah, Benny Ray Willingham, Carl
"Pee Wee" Acord, Deward Allan Scott, Robert E.
Clark, William R. Lynch, Jason Atkins, Joe Price,
Mike Elswick, Adam Morgan, Tim Davis, Cory
Davis, Richard Lane, Rex Mullins, Nick
McCroskey, Josh Napper, Dillard Persinger, Gary
Wayne Quarles, Grover Skeens, Kenneth Chapman,
James Mooney
...


April 20, 2010: The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig
operated by BP in the Gulf Of Mexico explodes.
11 people died...
...

Jason Anderson, Aaron Burkeen, Donald Clark Sr,
Stephen Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy Kemp, Karl,
Kleppinger Jr, Keith Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane
Roshto, Adam T. Weise.
Source
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0238.pdf
True or False?
Women in the US Army die at a lower frequency than
men.
TRUE




13.4% of active US Army personnel are women.
In Iraq, 3107 men and 83 women soldiers died
between March 19, 2003 and February 6, 2010.
So the percentage of soldiers that died that were
women was 2.6%.
30% of US Army positions are closed for women.
Sources

http://www.army.mil/women/today.html

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
True or False?
The poorest women on the titanic had a better survival
rate than the richest men.
TRUE



The survival rate for first-class men was 34% (55
survived, 104 died). The survival rate for third class
(steerage) women was 49% (88 survived, 91 died).
The survival rate for all men was 19% and the
survival rate for all women was 72%.
The survival rate for first-class women was 97%.
Source
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/titanic.html
True or False?
Women estimate higher rates of non-paternity (when
the person presumed to be the dad actually isn't) than
men.
TRUE

“A sex difference was observed across four
community samples of Austrian adults (totalling 763
men and 795 women), with women overall
providing higher human non-paternity estimates than
men (14.5% versus 9.1%).”
Source
http://www.toddkshackelford.com/downloads/VoracekFisher-Shackelford-ASB.pdf
True or False?
More men than women favor paternity testing.
TRUE

Men: 50%

Women: 32%

(Survey was done in Seattle, WA)
Source
http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S10905138(04)00024-8/abstract
True or False?
The actual non-paternity rate, as determined by DNA
testing, is 10%.
TRUE


This comes from a 1991 pre-natal study in
Edinburgh, UK, published in The Lancet, the peerreviewed British medical journal, in 1991.
(Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. You have to
pay $31.50 to get the data.)
This study appears to be the most important because
it was done on all the babies born during the study,
while most paternity testing is done only when
paternity is in doubt (and finds much higher nonpaternity rates).
Source
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/01406
7369191513T
...
One more...
True or False?
We all have twice as many female ancestors as male.
TRUE

This was determined by using techniques in genetics
for determining what is called "effective population
size" (size of past population that is represented in
the current gene pool) and applying it to the sexdependent parts of the human genome
(mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome). The
results show that humans have approximately twice
as many female ancestors as male.
Source
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/21/11/2047
...
The End
(of claims that could be verified)
THE FUTURE?

Will relations between men and women continue to
become more and more antagonistic?

Why was Hanna Rosin's TED Talk the most
disliked TED Talk ever?

Feminism vs anti-feminism to become a major
cultural divide like liberalism vs conservatism?

Women and men in different information bubbles
(women reading Cosmo, men reading Maxim, etc)
hearing about the problems of their own gender
and the advantages of the other, and rarely viceversa?
THE FUTURE?

3 possibilities with respect to women's continued
advancement in education and business:

Women continue to advance indefinitely

Women advance to a certain point and stop

Women advance to a certain point, then the trend
will reverse
THE FUTURE?


Will women advance in the very top ranks of society
– billionaires, CEO's, Hollywood directors, members
of congress? Or will women's advancement apply
only to the middle of society – college degrees, etc?
If the top of society becomes gender-balanced, will
the bottom of society (homeless, prisoners, etc) also
become gender-balanced?
THE FUTURE?


Is the United States at the leading edge of these
changes? Will these changes propagate throughout
the world?
How can a futurist hope to predict what will happen
without knowing why these changes are happening
now? Just about any “why” explanation will rely on
some type of gender stereotype and will be
politically incorrect.
The End (except for claims that could not be verified).
Claims I was unable to verify...



Claim: 75% of people using in-vitro fertilization in
the US are requesting girls, not boys. Verdict:
Unable to find data (from anyone other than Hanna
Rosin)
Claim: Most advertising dollars are directed at
women. Verdict: Unable to find data (but probably
true: see the item on consumer spending).
Claim: Women receive favorable treatment in
venture capital funding. Verdict: Unable to find data.
Unable to verify (cont'd)



Claim: Men commit suicide at an extremely high
rate following divorces. Verdict: Unable to find data.
Claim: Pornography causes rape, sexual assault, and
sexual harassment. Verdict: Unable to determine,
data was contradictory.
Claim: Women find only about 10% of men truly
attractive (“Alpha” males). Verdict: Unable to find
data.
Unable to verify (cont'd)



Claim: States that don't publish their divorce rates
have divorce rates over 70%. Verdict: Unable to find
data.
Claim: Following divorce, the woman's standard of
living plummets by X percent while that of the
man's improves by Y percent. (X and Y vary).
Verdict: Unable to find data.
Claim: Men receive more severe punishment from
the legal system for the same crimes. Verdict:
Unable to find data.
Unable to verify (cont'd)

Claim: Every civilization that became femaledominated in history collapsed shortly thereafter.
Verdict: Unable to determine, unable to define
exactly which “civilizations” in “history” became
“female dominated” (though we can agree on which
collapsed: the (Western) Roman Empire, the Chou
dynasty in China, the Harappan, Mesopotamia, the
Egyptian Old Kingdom, the Hittite empire, the
Minoan, the Mycenaean, the Olmec, the Chacoans,
the Hohokam, the Hurari and Tiahuanaco, the
Kachin, etc).
Unable to verify (cont'd)

Claim: Iceland is the world's first modern
“matriarchal” society: The head of state is female,
the majority of the legislature is female, and since
the 2008 financial crisis, women have been installed
as heads of all the banks and financial institutions.
Verdict: I was able to verify that Iceland does have a
female head of state (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir) but
could not verify the other claims.
Unable to verify (cont'd)


Claim: Before high school graduation, the average
child sees more than 50,000 hours of television. 97%
of characters killed on television are men. Verdict:
Unable to find data on fictional TV homicides.
Claim: Single women are better parents than single
men, as measured by grades in school and
standardized test scores and lack of delinquency and
drug abuse. Lesbian couples are better parents than a
heterosexual male/female married couple. Verdict:
Unable to find data.
Unable to verify (cont'd)

Boys do worse than girls at all levels in school. Boys
do worse than girls in elementary school, middle
school, high school, college, and graduate school.
More boys are held back and each level and fewer
graduate and progress to the next level at each
statge. Verdict: could not find data for every
segment of the educational process, only for college
graduate and postgraduate degrees.
...
The End
(for real this time)