“Unlucky” 16
October 2, 2008
by Amy Siskind
|
Is it random or statistically significant—the appearance and re-appearance of sixteen percent figure for women in our country?
The New York Times had a piece today titled: “Law Firms Get Rated on Female Friendliness”. The article reports that while law students are roughly evenly divided between men and women, currently only 16% of law firm partners are women.
Does 16% figure sound familiar? It should. Check out the statistics for women in government:
- In 2008, 16 of our 100 Senators seats are held by women (16%)
- In 2008, 71 of our 435 House of Representatives seats are held by women (16%)
- In 2008, 8 of our 50 Governorships are hold by women (16%)
Had enough? We’re not done yet. Our co-founder Nancy Hopkins, a professor at MIT points out that 16% of the MIT science faculty is—you guessed it—women.
Is this random? Perhaps. But here’s another way of looking at the data:
Women compose 52% of the U.S. population. Estimates are that women will compose between 54-56% of the votes in this coming election. The New Agenda has as one of our goals that concept of “parity.” This simply means that women’s percentage of positions in government and business should reflect our percentage of the general population. Given the 16% factor, it looks like we are ¼ of the way to our goal (16/54).
Forget “You’ve come a long way, baby”—rather it should be, “We have a long way to go, ladies!”
52% of the population, 16% influence? Unacceptable for us, especially unacceptable for our daughters. We need to change this.
[...] in the Fall, we explored the concept of “Unlucky 16″. The notion that women account for only 16% of so many leadership positions in government (16% [...]
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
May 8, 2012 at 11:30 am
May 8, 2012 at 9:56 am
May 7, 2012 at 2:04 pm
May 7, 2012 at 1:37 pm
May 7, 2012 at 1:19 pm
April 20, 2012 at 12:57 pm
April 11, 2012 at 4:39 pm
April 6, 2012 at 1:18 pm
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online