By: Jackie Regan
University of Kansas

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According to the UN:
● “ Equality between women and men (gender equality): refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a women’s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable peoplecentered development.”

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According to Pew Research 53% believe men will keep holding top executive positions in the future
Only 44% said it is a matter of time until women hold as many top executive positions as men
But, this says as many not that any believe women will exceed men

● According to Pew Research only 1 in 5 say family responsibilities for women are a main reason there are not more women in top leadership positions in business and politics
● 4 in 10 say it’s due to double standard for women who seek to move up to the highest levels of politics or business and that they have to do more than males to prove themselves
● others said the electorate and corporate America are not ready for women to take on high leadership positions

● men’s incomes have stagnated
● women’s incomes have slowly risen
● both male and female earnings have gotten closer, but not near to being equal
(Gilbert textbook)

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In the Second Shift, I argued that we are in a stalled revolution — that women have gone into the workforce, that was the revolution, but the workplace they go into and the men they come home to have changed less rapidly, or not at all. Nor has the government that could give them policies that would ease the way, like paid parental leave, paid family medical leave, or subsidized child care – the state of the art child care, that too is stalled.
So what you’ve got are three sources of stall. What’s happening to men.
What’s happening to the workplace and missing government help.”
-Hochschild

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Only 26 women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies or 5%
There were none in 1995 in 2013, 1 in 6 board members of Fortune 500 companies were women or 17%
This was 10% in 1995

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Full time female workers earn only 77% of their male co-workers earnings
African American women earn 64 cents to a caucasian man’s dollar
Latina women earn 56 cents to a caucasian male worker’s dollar pay discrimination is a big problem women face, even today

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2015:
● Women hold 104 of 535 seats in Congress
● 19.4%
● 20 of 100 seats in the
Senate
● 20%
● 84 of 435 seats in the
House of Representatives
● 19.3%
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24.2% make up positions in state legislatures
● States with the highest percentages of women legislators are:
● Colorado42%
● Vermont42.1%
● Arizona35.6%
● Minnesota- 33.3%
● Washington- 32.7%
● Nevada31.7%
● Therefore not one state out of 50 has 50% or higher representation of women

● The U.S. Congress representation has gone up from 3% in the 1980s to
19.4% today
● This is an increase, but not a dramatic one
● Statewide electives were higher in 1999 and 2001 than today
● So, there has been some progress for women, but it has been not only very slow, but not close to equal representation with men at all

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According to the Reader in 2001 women received almost half of all law degrees
● they only made up 30% of law positions
● women made up
● 15% federal judges
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15% law firm partners
● 5% managing partners
● 10% law school deans
● 10% of general counsels

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According to the Reader:
● women have closed the education gap and even beat out men in graduation rates
● but the number of women in the workforce is still smaller than men
● more women who once dropped out after having kids have stayed in the workforce today
● the past four decades women have gotten more educated, more have joined the workforce, and they have even moved up from so called “pink collar” jobs to more valued ones
● Despite this progress gender inequality still exists and seems to be stalled

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Sayer, L. C. "Gender, Time and Inequality: Trends in Women's and Men's Paid Work, Unpaid Work and Free Time."
Social Forces 84.1 (2005): 285-303. Web.
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Van Der Gaag, Nikki. "Women Are Better off Today, but Still Far from Being Equal with Men." Theguardian.com
. The
Guardian, 29 Sept. 2014. Web.
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"Women and Leadership." Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project RSS . N.p., 14 Jan. 2015. Web.
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"OSAGI Gender Mainstreaming - Concepts and Definitions." UN News Center . UN, n.d. Web..
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Liphilli. Women in Elective Office 2015 (n.d.): n. pag. Center for American Women and Politics, 2015. Web.
● Schulte, Brigid. "‘The Second Shift’ at 25: Q & A with Arlie Hochschild." Washington Post . The Washington Post, 6 Aug.
2014. Web.
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"Understand the Basics." The White House . The White House, n.d. Web. 07 May 2015.
● Grusky, David B., and Szonja Szelényi. The Inequality Reader: Contemporary and Foundational Readings in Race,
Class, and Gender . Boulder, CO: Westview, 2007. Print.
● Gilbert, Dennis L. The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality . N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.