Working Women Archives - The Career Success Doctor

What were the best jobs for women in 2013 and what are the predictions for this and the coming years? Some years ago, if a girl wanted to work there weren’t many options. Nowadays women are working in all fields. From factory workers to CEOs, and from police officers to pilots, women can be found in every working environment. And it is not uncommon in our century for females to run the household finances, and -more recently- to run businesses.

But what are the best jobs for women these days? What were the most high-paying career options last year? What do statistics show about working women?

In the infographic below, published in Visually by Graphs, you will see a nice summary of every kind of research around the topic ‘professional women’.

According to research, 73% of working women had white collar occupations in 2009 and it is projected that women labour force will be increased to 78 million by 2018.

As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the best-paying job for women in 2013 was the one of the pharmacist. In the second and third place were lawyers and computers and information systems managers accordingly. Great news for women in STEM: in this top 19 there are many professions in that field.

The job of the physician’s assistant is the highest paying job in the top 10 career options for women, followed by that of the video game designer. It is worth to take a look at the jobs that women outnumber men. Among them are school teachers, insurance underwriters and HR managers.

Looking at the countries with the highest percentage of women’s entrepreneurship I was surprised I didn’t see the United States or any of the ‘big’ European countries (the ones with the strongest economy). Thailand has the highest percentage of female entrepreneurs in the world! Peru, Colombia and Venezuela are following. To my amazement, Greece -where I come from- is ranked in the 9th place!

It is a fact that women are starting new firms at twice the rate of all other businesses. Today, women-owned businesses in the Unites States represent nearly 40% of all US businesses. The most interesting fact is that women-owned businesses employ 35% more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined!

Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

Like many of us, I’ve had my share of unsupportive bosses, particularly those who are keen to promote a man rather than a woman. I know that in many societies it’s a real struggle to get recognition as a a professional if you happen to be female. And today I discovered just how bad it is for women managers in Japan.

An article in the HBR blog (what a great resource their online version is, by the way) reveals that, along with South Korea, Japan has the lowest rate of women managers in the developed world at around 10%. Note, we’re not talking about Board members here, we’re only looking at managers. By comparison, about 35% of managers in UK are female, which puts us just above the EU average, and fourth behind Latvia, Lithuania and France. Yep, you read that right, France have a higher percentage of female managers than UK.

The other fascinating fact to emerge from this piece is that ‘more women working and more babies’ can help ‘counter an aging workforce and a flaccid economy’. In my opinion that’s a lesson the UK government could take on board, too. For many working women, the poor level of childcare makes it difficult to commit to a career and be a truly effective performer at work. We do it, but it’s despite a limited (and in some areas non-existent) level of childcare.

It’s easy to be complacent that we’re doing so much better than Japan and the majority of EU countries, even the Anglo Saxon ones. Women make up over 50% of the UK population, so why are the numbers so low?

Of course, taking time out to have children accounts for some of the difference, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. In my work I am increasingly meeting intelligent, dynamic women who have left the corporate sector (by which I mean the world of other peoples’ organisations, private, public and not-for-profit sectors, organisations large, medium and small) to set up their own business. Many say they dislike the corporate ethos, that it’s too masculine and doesn’t allow them to express themselves as women. Many are leaving because they are fed up, and feel they can have more work-life balance, time for their kids, do something they love and make a difference by working for themselves.

As a woman running her own business, I applaud this. But how sad that so many of us do it because feel we HAVE to do it, that it’s the only way out, the only way to have a truly fulfilling career and be who we really are, rather than struggling to play the game.

Rant over….here’s the rest of that hbr blog.