Forget the politics of the so-called war on women. When it comes to their careers anyway, women seem to be winning.
Two stories Monday highlight women's rise in the workplace. CNNMoney is the latest news outlet to discover that more men are staying home to take care of their children. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal on Monday asserts that "More Women Are Primed to Land CEO Roles."
In the CNN story, reporter Jessica Dickler writes that "a growing number of dads... are staying home with the kids." The story cites statistics from the Census showing that 32 percent of fathers with a wife in the workforce took care of their children at least one day a week in 2010, an increase from 26 percent in 2002.
CNN's hardly the first to discover that more fathers are staying home. Time's March cover story "The Richer Sex," claimed that "women are overtaking men as America's breadwinners." In January BusinessWeek ran a cover story entitled "Behind Every Great Woman," which took a deep dive into female corporate executives married lives. To rise to the top, the article concluded, female executives need supportive husbands who are willing to take a backseat to their wives' ambitions.
BusinessWeek's story cited different statistics from the Census: Women hold more than half of all managerial and professional positions and 23 percent of wives now out-earn their husbands.
Yet for all this progress women still are dramatically unrepresented at the top echelons of corporate America. As the Wall Street Journal story points out, there are only 35 female CEOs at the Fortune 1000, however one executive says that the number could double by 2017. The story lists 10 women executives that are likely to rise to the CEO office in the coming years including Marissa Mayer at Google Inc. and Michelle Gass at Starbucks Corp.
And more women are expected to rise up into the senior most ranks of corporate America, probably with the help of all those stay-at-home dads. While the WSJ says one reason women haven't risen faster is because they lack experience managing profit-and-loss, another reason sometimes cited for women falling behind is the "mommy track," the slower career path mothers often take--voluntarily or not--after having children.
Now with so many more fathers stepping up into a more primary role as parent, perhaps we'll need to rename it the "daddy track." WSJ sibling site FINS.com points out that more fathers are now seeing their careers stagnate as they spend more time with their children.