Politics has not traditionally been kind to women—just ask Hillary Clinton about the pantsuit jokes—but over the past few decades, women have eked out more spots in state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. In the world of business, progress for women has been considerably slower, new research shows.
The ranks of women expanded in both fields, according to a report released Wednesday (pdf) by the Pew Research Center, but it's only in politics that women made big gains getting jobs at the highest levels. Women make up 24.2 percent of state legislators, up from 4.5 percent in 1971. They held 52.2 percent of management and professional jobs in 2013, up from 30.6 percent in 1968. Yet women are more likely to occupy the top positions in politics than in business. While a record 104 women currently serve in Congress, women constitute only 4.6 percent of chief executive officers and 19.2 percent of board members among companies listed in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
