Interesting+facts


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•Women and Politics: -Before Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Presidency, in 1933, a woman had never served on the President’s Cabinet. Frances Perkins became the first woman to do so. She was Roosevelt’s secretary of labor. -There had never been a female senator before 1948. -As of November 1997, there had only been two female governors in the United States. -As of the 1990’s, the percent of women in the United States’ government is 41st place worldwide, compared to the percentage of women in other countries’ governments.

•In the mid 1980’s, Katherine Gram became the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, The Washington Post.

•In 1859,at a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts, women were being paid one dollar per week for 16 hour days, while men performing the same tasks earned three dollars per week.

•Throughout the 1940’s and 50’s, divorce was very rare. When it occurred, the wife’s former husband was expected to financially provide for her until she remarried.

•In 1966 airplane stewardesses were under the age of thirty and single. Many people thought this was because it made flying more enjoyable for male travelers on business. Betty Friedan discovered that the air lines were firing the women before they earned vacation or accumulated pay increases or pension rights.

• Many companies hire a token number of female employees to create the delusion that they are a fair employer and support the integration of the workforce. A token number is a cutoff figure of employees that are either female, colored, or of another category.

•In the early 1990’s, three quarters of working American females were employed in five different categories: household worker, service employee (such as a waitress), elementary school teacher, nurse, and secretarial/clerical office worker. Companies or buildings that employed these workers or other businesses where the majority of the workers are females are known as “pink-collar ghettos.”

•Almost 60 percent of women return to part-time or full-time work before their child is one-year-old.

•Ann E. Weiss, the author of The Glass Ceiling, believes that women operate under three levels of pressure. The first being their job. The second being the conflict between work and home. Finally, the third is their presence as a pioneer in a “man’s field”. One other pressure affecting working women is the pressure of high performance. They feel that if they fail, they have set a bad example and let down the women of the future.

•Sexual Harassment is a problem for working women. 20 to 35 percent of women in the United States civilian work force feel that they have been sexually harassed. This harassment is an even greater problem in the armed forces. A government investigation performed in 1997 states that 47 percent of service women claim that they have been sexually harassed. This problem is believed to be caused by men’s jealousy. The males might feel like their wages, livelihood, and jobs are threatened by the working women. This problem will exist until the glass ceiling is completely demolished.

•Maine is one state that provides extra assistance to working women who are pregnant or awaiting adoption. The Family and Medical Leave Act, signed by President Clinton in 1993, states that workers employed by a company with 50 or more employees are granted time off of work to care for a child, parent, or spouse. They are not paid during this time but they are guaranteed their job when they return to work. Maine offers ten unpaid weeks off of work, parents are entitled to leave with the birth of a baby or an adoption, and the employer can only employ fifteen or more employees.