Statistics: Women & Work

I captured the following statistics from a recent Real Simple article currently on news stands. Surely, we know that women don’t all work 9-5 jobs, but I found the following numbers pretty interesting:

  • 15% of women work at home
  • 32% of women work part time.
  • 28% of women age 25 – 64 stay home.
  • 46% of organizations allow for job-sharing.
  • 91% of women believe they can be flexible with work schedules.
  • 15% of women think taking advantage of flexibility will hurt their careers.
  • 8%: the average loss of earning power after a woman’s hiatus from work.
  • 37%: the average loss of earning power after a 3+ year hiatus from work.
  • 33.5%: the percentage of women returning to the work force within 5 years of their first child in the 1960’s.
  • 78.6%: the percentage of women returning to the work force within 5 years of their first child in the 1990’s.

I was surprised by the loss of earning power after a 3 year hiatus from work. On average, you assume a 3-5% raise each year. So I would’ve assumed a figure closer to a 15% loss, I was quite surprised by a 37% loss.

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