10 Stats on Women’s Equality That Might Be Scarier than Halloween
October 29, 2014‘Tis the season to be scared. From horror films and costumes to jack-o’-lanterns and ghost stories, Halloween is never short on surprises. But while the holiday celebrates the spooky, every day women face scary circumstances. Ghouls, goblins, and graveyards may seem frightening, but the statistics on women’s equality reflect a reality far scarier than whatever comes out to haunt on Halloween.
Which is scarier?

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The pay gap affects women of all backgrounds, but unsurprisingly, race and ethnicity matter when it comes to women’s paychecks. Hispanic and Latina women face the worst disparity, getting paid only 54 percent of what white men get paid.

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Despite the higher salaries and greater prospects for employment for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, the pipeline continues to be dominated by men. Among the computing and engineering fields, which account for 80 percent of STEM jobs, women represent less than one-quarter of the workers.

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The 2012 election cycle proved significant for women; they bolstered their political representation in Congress to an all-time high. Yet there’s still not even one woman for every five men in Congress.

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While we’ve seen small but steady gains in women’s representation in national office, progress among state leadership has been meager. Only 35 women have served as state governors, and 24 states have never elected a woman to the governor’s seat. Several of these states have a chance to make history in the election next week, including Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

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So much for America being a leader in feminist progress. In its most recent Global Gender Gap Report, the World Economic Forum ranked the United States 60th among 136 countries for women’s political empowerment. The ranking places the United States behind India, China, and Uganda for women’s equality in political leadership.

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Partly due to the shame, stigma, and fear associated with reporting a sexual assault, more than half of sexual assaults since 2009 went unreported. The likelihood of reporting is even lower on college campuses. The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act seeks to reconcile this problem by requiring colleges and universities to create transparent prevention programs that deter violence while encouraging more victims to come forward.

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Despite representing more than half of professional-level jobs, women’s leadership within the boardrooms of America has stagnated in recent years. Among the Fortune 500, women lead only 4.6 percent of companies. Investing in women’s talent and nurturing women’s self-confidence are two methods for fostering greater opportunities for women to move up the leadership ranks (not to mention reaping the benefits of women’s perspectives).

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A 2009 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research revealed that among 22 countries highly ranked in economic and human development, the United States is the only country that does not guarantee workers paid sick days. This means that more than 22 million working women lose money when they must miss work for an illness.

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Because women are often primary caregivers, a child’s illness frequently means that the mother is the one who misses work to care for the child. Unfortunately, for half of working mothers, that time is unpaid.

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Those who say the fight for women’s rights is over need only look at these two numbers: In the past year alone, more than 468 bills related to restricting women’s health and access to reproductive rights have been introduced in state legislatures. Shockingly, zero restrictions regarding men’s bodies have been brought to the floors of statehouses.
AAUW Senior Designer Alli VanKanegan contributed to the post.
[…] to the American Association of University Women, Hispanic and Latina women were paid 54% of what white men were paid in 2013. As of International […]
[…] each dollar earned by their male counterparts; and the gender pay gap is worse for women of color. Additional statistics reveal that women are vastly underrepresented in certain areas – science and engineering […]