The Glass Ceiling Commission was established in 1991 to study unbreachable barriers that keep minorities, and women, from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. It desired to eliminate these hindrances “to the advancement of women and minorities” to “management and decision making positions.”
The American Dream is about opportunities for all. This country has drawn tens of millions of immigrants with the promise that all citizens could succeed if they worked hard and played by the rules. Yet, the glass ceiling denies millions of Americans opportunities for economic and personal advancement.
Over the past 30 years, we have made great progress in bringing down barriers that prevented large numbers of citizens from fully participating in our society. Yet, the existence of the glass ceiling tells us that there is still work to be done. A phrase coined to describe the difficulties women have in rising to the upper echelons of business; “the glass ceiling” is now understood to be an obstacle to minorities as well.
The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission noted that women made up only five percent of senior managers, vice presidents or higher in Fortune 1000 companies. Now, that figure went up from the one and one-half percent in the mid-1980s. What about in recent years?
To think about:
In 2013, 57.2 percent of women were in the labor force, down a 0.5 percentage point from 2012. In 2013, women accounted for 51 percent of all workers employed in management, professional, and related occupations, somewhat more than their share of total employment (47 percent).
The share of women in specific occupations within this large category varied. For example, 20 percent of software developers and 33 percent of lawyers were women, whereas 62 percent of accountants and auditors and 81 percent of elementary and middle schoolteachers were women. —U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
The big corps represented in the Fortune 1000 makes up only 20 percent of the workforce in the U.S. In some industries, women actually hold half or more of the management jobs. Biotech, health care, insurance and nonprofit social services have more and more woman in management and executive positions.
And woman-owned businesses are exploding: For example the women in Network Marketing numbers continue to grow.
According to Working Woman magazine, 1994 found 7.7 million woman-owned businesses— up from 6.5 million the previous year. That was 21 years ago.
Consider this:
Another source stated that the number of women-owned firms in the U.S. in 2015 is now estimated to have surpassed 9.4 million enterprises; the revenue generated by these enterprises is now estimated to stand at nearly $1.5 trillion, and Women-owned businesses now employ over 7.9 million workers (excluding owners), providing one in seven jobs among privately-owned businesses.
Statistics have shown that someone starts a new home business every 10 seconds, and that approximately 15.8 Million people are working from home full-time, and another 38 million, or 12% of the total population, working from home part-time (U.S.).
President Obama apparently said that when women succeed, America succeeds, and he emphasized that women must support each other and that taking steps toward ownership through Network Marketing is a step in the right direction.
REPLACE FEAR WITH CURIOSITY Courage Changes Everything – Jiri Hradsky
