The Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau released its list of the 20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women.  The data supports stereotypes such as “nursing is a woman’s job” and “all secretaries are female.”  There were some jobs, though, that I was surprised to learn are largely held by women, including customer-service representatives and accountants and auditors.  Here are the other 18 jobs and the percentage of each held by women, according to the DOL:

See the original:

20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women Fact Sheet  at the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau website.

Maria Shriver is doing more than violating her state’s ban on cell phone use while driving these days. Perhaps her ambitious project is in part what compels her need to multi-task in the car (but please invest in a hands-free device, Maria, so the press can focus on your other admirable pursuits!).

As reported on Sloan’s Work and Family Network Blog, this week you will likely hear quite a bit in the media about a report being published by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress called A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything. The goal of this undertaking has been to provide an in-depth look at the status of women in America from a number of different perspectives and across a wide range of sectors – healthcare, higher education, law, public service, policy, etc.

The report notes that while women constitute 57% of new college graduates, and while women have made great strides in the workplace, they still contribute twice the number of hours to dependent care and domestic tasks as men do. This disconnect means that—like it or not—employers will need to take steps to allow accommodate work-family issues to allow women (and other caregivers) to succeed in the workplace. It’s not just altruism that mandates this, it’s the employer’s bottom line.

Although there is proposed legislation to address some of the concerns (including paid sick leave), currently such measures are left largely to the employer. Although the report is ambitious and contains admirable goals, now is a tough time to pursue them. As we’ve discussed here before, the current attitude (although misguided) among many employers is that employees are lucky to have jobs and the last thing they feel compelled to discuss is “work-life” issues that may allow their employees to better juggle their demands outside of work. Nevertheless, as women continue to grow in number and rank in the workplace, this issue is here to stay.

International Women’s Day (IWD), is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.  IWD was celebrated officially on Sunday, March 8, 2009, so this post is a day late but, in light of the worthiness of the topic, timely nonetheless.  Making it even more timely is the fact that March is “Women’s History Month” in the U.S.

To celebrate, many global organizations host internal events, as well as support external ones.  For example, Google changes its logo on its global search pages. 

The International Women’s Day website provides a free service to women around the world wanting to share and promote their IWD activity, videos, opinions and ideas.  The site offers the following summary as a backdrop for this important date:

The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970’s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.

Women who bully women at work is not a new topic on this blog.  A segment on Good Morning America today addressed the topic of female bullies from a different point of view.  The piece looked at the female target and how women tend to differ from men when subject to workplace bullying.  Some of the more interesting gender-specific perspective notes made in the piece included:

• Women are taught to be non-confrontational and this tendency to not fight back makes them especially vulnerable targets.
• Women, more so than men, tend to take negative interactions personally, concluding that the attack was directed to them specifically, as opposed to directed towards the individual standing closest to the bully at that moment.
• Women do not complain about an existing problem and, when they do, they aren’t as persistent as maybe they should be. 

So, do women make better targets?  Or, are they just more vicious bullies? 

It’s an interesting idea.  Women are better than men at bullying others and at being bullied by others.  Well, I suppose that there’s something to be said for being better at something.  Ok, not really.  So why do women fall into both roles with ease?  Are we genetically predisposed to these opposable positions? 

Gary Namie, Ph.D, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, offered the following tips to those being targeted by workplace bullies:

• Get support from family and friends. Talking about the problem eases the burden and lowers the chances of stress-related illness.
• See a doctor or a therapist, especially if you’re having stress symptoms, such as sleeplessness and appetite loss.
• Get witnesses to help you build a record of the bully’s actions for a future complaint.
• Confront the bully with the same toughness he or she showed you. This should be done with a single witness or as a group.

It’s interesting to note some of the ways in which these suggestions would be particularly effective for female targets.  The first suggestion, for example, is a very gender-specific technique.  Research proves that women are biologically programmed to talk about their problems, whereas the male brain actually reacts to stress by reducing his desire, even restricting his ability, to “talk about it.” 

Similarly, the tendency to garner group consensus prior to acting is a female-specific trait.  Males, on the other hand, tend not to seek group consensus before executing a decision.  This idea of “power in numbers” also is seen in the final suggestion, which encourages a victim to stand up to the bully–but to be supported by either a single witness or by a group. 

To read more about Jerks at Work, you may want to read these earlier posts:

New Conclusions on the Potential Costs of Workplace Bullying

Women Who Bully Women at Work

“My Boss Is Killing Me”: Why this just may be true

Top 5 Lessons to Be Learned from the Jerk at Work

Workplace bullying

It’s Friday and Your Boss Is a Total Tool

The Truth About Workplace Revenge