The Triumph of Feminism

This week’s Economist weighs in on the Palin debate with this thoughtful Lexington column – the triumph of feminism. Lex points to the generational split between younger women who are accustomed to seeing succesful female role models and older women for whom it is still more of a novelty. But that’s not what caught our eye. What we liked were the Economist’s numbers. Look at this…

"Women are also winning the most important of all gender wars—the war for educational qualifications. They earn 57% of bachelor’s degrees, 59% of master’s degrees and half of doctorates. And they are doing better all the time. In terms of higher education, women drew equal with men in 1980. By the early 1990s six women graduated from college for every five men. Projections show that by 2017 three women will graduate for every two men. The meritocracy is inexorably turning into a matriarchy, and visibly so on many campuses: the heads of Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Brown and the National Defence University are all women."

With education levels like this, no wonder companies want to hang on to us! This is what makes us women so valuable in today’s workplace and this is what gives us the clout to finally negotiate a work-life that actually suits our needs. This is what we call Womenomics. It is indeed, the triumph of feminism.

Katty