Hillary Clinton put "18 million cracks" in the "highest, hardest glass ceiling" in America, but still came up short on votes in her 2008 bid for the Democratic party presidential nomination.
Thankfully, women have had an easier time breaking into other executive-level positions. According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the number of women employed as managers or executives increased by 25 percent from 1999 to 2009.
Nationwide Employment of Men vs. Women at Management and Executive Levels
Despite a substantial increase in the number of women employed as managers and executives, a persistent gap still exists between men and women in the upper ranks. Only a slightly higher percentage of manager/executive positions were held by women in 2009 (37 percent) compared with a decade earlier (33 percent).
The disparity between men and women was wider at the executive and senior manager levels (72 percent vs. 28 percent) than among lower and mid-level managers (62 percent vs. 38 percent) in 2009, the latest year for which EEOC data is available. Those breakdowns are virtually unchanged since 2007, when EEOC statistics began differentiating between upper and lower management.
States With Smallest Male-Female Gap Among Managers and Executives
Men outnumber women in managerial and executive jobs in every U.S. state, as well as the nation's capital. Only six states plus Washington, D.C. had a male-female gap of less than 20 percent in such jobs in 2009:
- Washington, D.C. = 9%
- Rhode Island = 13%
- Hawaii = 14%
- Maine = 15%
- New York = 16%
- South Dakota = 16%
- Montana = 19%
D.C. employers also reported the narrowest male-female gap at the lower and middle management levels (five percent), followed by Rhode Island (10 percent) and Hawaii (11 percent). No state has a gap of less than 20 percent among executives and senior-level managers, although D.C. again tops the list (21 percent), followed by Montana (26 percent), Alaska, Hawaii and Montana (each at 31 percent).
States With Widest Male-Female Gap Among Managers and Executives
Seven states had an employment gap of more than 35 percent between men and women at the manager/executive level in 2009:
- Wyoming = 45%
- Louisiana = 43%
- Utah = 41%
- Alabama = 37%
- Idaho = 36%
- Mississippi = 36%
- South Carolina = 36%
Ironically, Wyoming is the only state where the disparity between men and women is smaller in upper management and executive jobs (37 percent) than junior and middle manager jobs (46 percent). In every other state and D.C., the male-female gap widens in the upper management ranks.
Utah employers reported the biggest gap between men and women at the senior manager and executive levels (62 percent), followed by Alabama and Idaho (both at 54 percent). Wyoming has the widest male-female disparity at the junior and middle management levels (46 percent), followed by Louisiana (42 percent) and Utah (37 percent).
Source: Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Job Patterns For Minorities And Women In Private Industry (EEO-1). EEOC requires periodic reports from employers regarding their workforce composition. The EEO-1 report is collected annually from private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with 50 or more employees.
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