58: The Self-Empowered Woman: Statistics

Dear Followers,

For a change of pace, today there will be no “profile” of a woman worth getting to know. Instead, I’m going to share a few thought-provoking statistics (thanks to Betsy Towner)….

    • From 1479 till 1458 B.C. a female Pharaoh (Hatshepsut) reigned in Egypt
    • The first woman to earn a medical degree, in 1849, was Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Over 10 million women own businesses in the U.S.
    • Women outrank men when it comes to earned college degrees by 58% to 42%
    • In the 1900 Census, over one million women listed their occupation as “servant”
    • In 2008, the highest paid woman in America was Safra Catz, the president of Oracle, who earned $42.5 million
    • The different average weekly pay scale for a woman with only a high school diploma and one with a bachelor’s degree or higher is $335.00
    • In 1879, Belva Ann Lockwood was the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court
    • Almost 2 million women have served in the U.S. Military
    • Women today earn 8o cents for every dollar earned by men for the same work
    • In 2008, Ann Dunwoody was named the first four-star general

 

In closing, here’s a quote from Greg Mortenson (more about him in blog # 38) the author of “Three Cups of Tea” and “Stones Into Schools”: “We can drop bombs, surge troops, put in roads, computers or electricity, but unless the girls are educated, a society will never change.”

Looking forward to your comments…

About Marilyn Murray Willison

The author of six non-fiction books, Willison worked as Health and Fitness Editor at the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and wrote book reviews, health, beauty, fashion, and travel articles on a regular basis for the Los Angeles Times. Her byline has appeared in a wide variety of American newspapers and magazines.