News For You - March 2001

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Slow Diversification May Lead to Deprivation

Over the past decade, slow but steady progress has been made to integrate women and minorities into boardrooms. A new study by executive recruiter Spencer Stuart finds that the diversity effort has stalled and, in some cases, even faltered.

Overall representation of Women On Boards remained at 12%, unchanged since last year. This was despite an increase in the percentage of new external women directors. The percentage of women selected to fill new board spots edged up from 18% to 21%. The status quo was maintained despite 93% of companies having at least one woman director on the board who could lobby for more representation. The findings make it evident that most boards have not moved beyond recruiting one woman director.

Julie Daum, managing director of Spencer Stuart’s board practice, sees a disconnect between what boards are looking for and the candidate pool that exists.

“There is a scarcity of women and minorities in the technology industry, where directors increasingly are being sought,” she says. The reason is that women and minorities in the high-tech industry are still building their careers and not sitting on boards at this point.

Despite the setback, Daum thinks companies sincerely look to foster diversity.

(Source: Directors Alert, Dec. 2000)
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Fact Sheet: According to the 2001 Catalyst Report, Women in Law: Making the Case.

In 2000, women represented only 15.6% of law partners nationwide and 13.7 percent of General Counsels positions in Fortune 500 companies.

66% of women in corporate legal departments report difficulty balancing work and personal life, compared to 71% of women in law firms.

Only 9% of women in corporate legal departments, as opposed to 22% of women at law firms, believe they can use flexible work arrangements without affecting advancement.

Although these figures appear to be discouraging, Catalyst also reported that for the first time in history, women’s enrollment in law school is expected to exceed that of males in 2001.

PA Legislature Ranks 44th Overall Pennsylvania’s numbers on women lawmakers is still low, just moving up a notch in the last year from 45th to 44th. Women lawmakers in PA include six senators and 28 members of the house -- only 13.4% of the total. Needless to say, there is not much cause for celebration.

State Senator Allyson Schwartz has the greatest seniority in the Senate with 10 years. She believes that women lawmakers have different sensitivities on issues since they often take greater responsibilities for raising children, visiting schools and finding adequate healthcare for family members. Schwartz was instrumental in helping pass legislation that prevents insurance companies from taking advantage of victims of domestic violence and single mothers. Although such measures were proposed and supported by women, none of this legislation could have been passed without a vast majority of support from males in the Senate.

Although it is true that there are now more women in the Pennsylvania legislature than at any time in history, there still is still a great deal of room for improvement.

(Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Monday, Jan. 22 2001)
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Weighed Down

Although most people are aware that being overweight can cause health problems, researchers also find that putting on extra pounds can hurt earnings – especially for women. To estimate how much weight can affect wages, economist John Cawley recently analyzed survey data covering a representative sample of women from 1979 to 1998.

Assessing white, black and Hispanic women separately, he looked at how much weight affected their wages, occupational sectors, and ability to find and retain jobs. Cawley’s data showed that weight appeared to have no influence on black women’s wages and only a weak effect on Hispanic women’s earnings. Among white women, however, being overweight lowered hourly wages substantially – about 7% for someone who weighed 65 pounds above the average.

The report raises questions that require future study into possible lower productivity and discrimination issues for overweight women.

(Source: Business Week / Jan. 15, 2001)

The Last Donna

Police officials in Naples arrested the wife of a jailed mob boss, Luigi Giuliano, a fresh sign that Italian women have broken through the glass ceiling of the organized crime business at least. The woman, Carmela Marzano, was arrested and questioned about her part in continuing her husband’s duties in his absence and threatening the wife of a rival mob clan boss.

The sudden emergence of women as bosses is less a reflection of their new empowerment and ruthlessness than a drain of manpower. With women being drafted to replace male relatives in jail or killed in clan rivalries, Naples officials expect further arrests of females involved in organized crime.

Indeed the gender roles that have divided men and women, in even the most secretive and deadly organizations, are being altered to accommodate the leadership abilities of females.

(Source: The New York Times International, Jan. 11, 2001)
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Holy Matrimony

A new study conducted by Wendy Troxel presents evidence that a happy marriage apparently helps protect women from strokes and heart attacks after menopause, when their risk rises sharply. In contrast, a miserable marriage can also take its toll by putting women at risk for dying of cardiovascular disease. In Troxel’s study with psychologist Karen Matthews, 490 women were followed from pre-menopausal years in their 40’s to at least five years after menopause. Among their major findings:

Before menopause, the unhappily married were significantly worse off on heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol than either the happily wed or single women.

After menopause, happily married women had the best cardiovascular health, as seen on body scans.

The new findings may shed light on why marriage is shown to benefit women’s health in some studies but not others.
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