Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

In 1878, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would give women the right to vote. 42 years later, in 1920, the states ratified the 19th Amendment and women finally were authorized (“franchised”) to vote.

While the 19th Amendment did signal the beginning of gains for women in education and the labor force, it has not yet, 91 years later, translated into wage and income equity. However, there have been gains: for every two men who received a college degree in 2010, three women achieved the same goal.

An in-depth report on the issue, titled Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, has just been published by a coalition of federal agencies working under the coordination of the Department of Commerce. The report, for the first time in U.S. history, pulls baseline information together from across the Federal statistical agencies.
The report is broken down into five categories:

- People, Families, and Income
- Education
- Employment
- Health
- Crime and Violence

An article published in Wharton’s online newsletter serves as a corollary report on the issues of women’s equality. The key point of this article is that women don’t get what they want because they don’t ask for it. (The links for these articles are below. If you can’t find them online, call Dina at 800-246-9767 for a hard copy.)

- www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg/data-on-women
- http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2746

So here’s the question: Is the reason women don’t do as well in the workforce as men that they just don’t ask?