Labor Day

For the past year I have been involved in the WomanStats project. My job is to collect data on the status of woman around the world. I code data for 350 variables over 175 nations. When I started coding for WomanStats I quickly became more keenly aware of the suffering of millions of women around the world. Although these statistics can be disheartening there are also improvements world wide for women as well as they gain more freedoms to speak out for their rights. For my weekly blog posts this semester I want to share a statistic on one country per week about something that is happening recently in the news. I think it is important to be aware of social problems both in our community and around the globe.

This week my blog is about the United States. A recent article from NPR shared about women in the work in relation to Labor Day. A link to the article is here at npr.org. A shout out to the women in the summer Olympics in Rio and to my girl Beyonce who was nominated for a record 11 VMAs. Women in congress have increased from 15 to 108 in the past 40 years.

Women entering to their careers out of college is constantly increasing and women have the freedom to study any subject they choose. Although finding work, internships and networking can seem overwhelming sometimes I have never felt that I limited in my career choice because of my gender. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to be able to study at BYU and surrounded by many brilliant powerful women.

The U.S. Ranks 97th On Women’s Legislative Representation

Women make up more than half of the U.S. population, but they make up only 19 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives. That puts the U.S. at 97th out of 187 countries in terms of women’s legislative representation. 

• 1. Rwanda
• 3. Cuba
• 5. Sweden
• 7. Mexico
• 11. Iceland
• 26. Germany
• 32. Costa Rica
• 45. Sudan
• 52. Afghanistan
• 64. Canada
• 97. United States
• 106. Jamaica
• 110. South Korea
• 121. Chile
• 134. Russia
• 155. Brazil
• 174. Thailand
• 187. Haiti

Bibliography

Young, Ashley. In Celebration Of Labor Day, A Look At Women In The U.S. Workforce. 16 September 2016. News Article. 9 September 2016.