National Women’s History Month’s roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Every year since, Congress has passed a resolution for Women’s History Month, and the president has issued a proclamation.
Here are some facts and statistics about women in the workplace and business in the United States from the U.S. Census Bureau:
- There were 154.7 million females in the United States as of Oct. 1, 2008. The number of males was 150.6 million.
- At 85 and older, there were more than twice as many women as men.
- The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2007 was $34,278, up from $33,648 in 2006 (after adjusting for inflation). Women earned 77.5 cents for every $1 earned by men.
- The median earnings of women in 2007 in the District of Columbia was $49,364, a total not statistically different from the men. In all of the 50 states, women had lower earnings than the men. The District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey were the only states or equivalents where median earnings for women were greater than $40,000.
- The median earnings of women working in computer and mathematical jobs was $61,957, the highest among the 26 major occupational groups. In the installation, maintenance and repair occupations and community and social services group, women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s earnings were higher than 90 percent.
- In 2007, 33 percent of women age 25 to 29 had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2007, which exceeded that of men in this age range (26 percent).
- There are 28.2 million women 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or more education in 2007, more than double the number 20 years earlier.
- As of 2007, 28 percent of women age 25 and older had obtained a bachelor’s degree or more as of 2007. This rate was up 11 percentage points from 20 years earlier.
- It is projected that 928,000 bachelor’s degrees will be awarded to women in the 2008-09 school year. Women are also projected to earn 391,000 master’s degrees during this period. Women would, therefore, earn 58 percent of the bachelor’s and 60 percent of the master’s degrees awarded during this school year. In addition, women would earn nearly 50 percent of first-professional degrees, such as law and medical.
- Women-owned businesses produced more than $939 billion in revenue in 2002. There were 116,985 women-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more.
- There were nearly 6.5 million women-owned businesses in 2002. Women owned 28 percent of all nonfarm businesses.
- More than 7.1 million people are employed by women-owned businesses. There were 7,231 women-owned businesses with 100 or more employees, generating $274 billion in gross receipts.
- Nearly one in three women-owned businesses operated in health care and social assistance, and other services, such as personal services, and repair and maintenance. Women owned 72 percent of social assistance businesses and just over half of nursing and residential care facilities. Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 38 percent of women-owned business revenue.