In honor of Women's History Month, the U.S. Census Bureau released the following demographic snapshot:
Women's History Month: March 2012
National
Women's History Month's roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New
York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International
Women's Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn't until 1981 that Congress
established National Women's History Week to be commemorated the second week of
March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Every year since,
Congress has passed a resolution for Women's History Month, and the President
has issued a proclamation.
157.0 million
The
number of females in the United States according to the 2010 Census. The number of males was 151.8 million.
At 85 and
older, there were more than twice as many women as men.
Motherhood:
85.4 million
Estimated number of mothers in the United States in 2009.
Source: Unpublished data
from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, 2008
2.3
Average
number of children that women 40 to 44 had given birth to as of 2008, down from
3.4
children in 1976, the year the Census Bureau began collecting such data.
The
percentage of women in this age group who had given birth was 81 percent in
2010, down from 90 percent in 1976.
Earnings:
$36,931
The
median annual earnings of women 15 or older who worked
year-round, full time, in 2010, unchanged from 2009. In 2010, the female-to-male
earnings ratio was 0.77, not statistically different from the 2009 ratio.
Education:
30.7
million
Number of
women 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or more in 2010, higher than the
corresponding number for men (29.2 million). Women had a larger share of high
school diplomas (including equivalents), as well as associate, bachelor's and
master's degrees. More men than women had a professional or doctoral degree.
29.6%
Percent
of women 25 and older who had obtained a bachelor's degree or more as of 2010.
11.3
million
Number of
college students in fall 2010 who were women.
Businesses:
$1.2
trillion
Revenue
for women-owned businesses in 2007.
7.8
million
The
number of women-owned businesses in 2007.
7.5
million
Number of
people employed by women-owned businesses in 2007.
Nearly
half of all women-owned businesses (45.9 percent) operated in repair and
maintenance; personal and laundry services; health care and social assistance;
and professional, scientific and technical services. Women-owned businesses accounted for 52.0 percent of all
businesses operating in the health care and social assistance sector.
4
Number
of states with at least 500,000 women-owned businesses in 2007 were California, Texas, New York and Florida. California had 1.0
million women-owned businesses, Texas had 609,947 or 7.8 percent of all women-owned
businesses in the United States, New York had 594,517 or 7.6 percent, and
Florida had 581,045, or 7.4 percent.
Voting:
46.2%
Percentage
of female citizens 18 and older who reported voting in the 2010 congressional
election. Forty-five percent of their male
counterparts cast a ballot. Additionally, 66.6 percent of female citizens
reported being registered to vote.
Jobs:
58.6%
Percentage
of females 16 and older who participated in the labor force, representing about
71.9 million women, in 2010.
40.6%
Percent
of employed females 16 and older who worked in management, professional and
related occupations, compared with 34.2 percent of employed males.
Military:
205,500
Total
number of active duty women in the military, as of Sept. 30, 2010. Of that
total,
38,700
women were officers, and 166,800 were enlisted.
Source:
U.S. Department of Defense, Selected Manual Statistics, annual, and unpublished
data.
Marriage:
64.9
million
Number
of married women 18 and older (including those who were separated or had an
absent spouse) in 2011.
5
million
Number of
stay-at-home mothers nationwide in 2010.
Post a comment as Guest
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.