Society’s Quality of Equality

Megan Klug, Blue M Editor in Chief

Women account for 50.8 percent of the United States population, yet the representation they have in the workforce is dominated by men.

  • In 2016, women were typically paid 80 percent of what men were paid. At the rate the gap is currently being depleted, it is expected that women’s pay will be equal to men’s by the year 2059. However, if additional stalling takes place, it will not be equal until the year 2119. (AAUW)
  • In Kansas, men are paid on average $47,891, while women are commonly paid $37,091. That means women are paid 77 percent of what men are paid. (American Progress)
  • 19.6 percent of United States Congress seats are held by women. 21 percent of people serving in the United States Senate are women. Only 19.3 percent of the House of Representative members are women. (American Progress)
  • Only 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEO’s are women. Worse for women of color, only 3.2 percent of the Fortune 500 board members are made up of women of color. (American Progress)
  • More than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies have no women of color as board directors. (American Progress)
  • The United States was ranked sixth in women’s economic participation and opportunity on the World Economic Forum’s 2013 Gender Gap Index of 136 countries. (American Progress)
  • In regards to show business, women made up 16 percent of all the directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers and editors who worked on the 250 top-grossing domestic films of 2013. (American Progress)
  • Women account for earning 47 percent of all law degrees, and 48 percent of all medical degrees. However, they make up only 34.3 percent of physicians and surgeons. Of the pediatricians 60 percent are women make up a third of all practicing physicians. (American Progress)