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can work like this, let’s get liberated.” These words from Peggy Olson on “Mad Men,” spoken so boldly and valiantly, without hesitation and free of remorse, carry a determined message that should be the motto not only of today’s businesswomen, but today’s businessmen as well. Huge headway has been made by women in business since Peggy Olson’s era and in some disciplines, women excel far beyond men. However, there exists an array of converging and diverging opinions about females as workplace leaders that leave us running in circles in an attempt to determine whether women in business are rightfully celebrated or unjustly overlooked. We ought to look to Ms. Olson for a lesson and stop viewing females as the weaker sex in business and allow ourselves to revel in the extraordinary accomplishments of today’s female business leaders. Here in Arizona, statistics show that women are succeeding in channeling their inner Peggy Olson and making their skills and abilities widely known and appreciated. According to American Express OPEN’s 2014 State of Womenowned Business Report, Arizona ranked fourth in the United States for its economic power of women-owned businesses. All 50 states were ranked according to growth charted over the last 17 years in the following three areas: the number of women-owned businesses in the state, the number of jobs those businesses account for, and the total revenue brought in by the female-owned companies. For the state of Arizona as a whole, that revenue grew 101 percent between 1997 and 2014, as compared with just 72 percent overall for the United States. Arizona women also lead in areas once thought to be exclusively male fields, such as government. Four of the past five governors of the Grand Canyon State have been women. Additionally, Arizona is one of 10 states that uses multimember districts (MMD), which research suggests encourages electing female candidates. MMD allows Arizonians to vote for a male and a female representative rather than just one or the other. The use of MMD appears to be extremely successful – 77 percent of our state’s population has a female representative in the house or the senate. Furthermore, women are beginning to dominate in areas such as accounting, management, and financial management. When talking to women who are leaders in previously thought male-ruled industries, we found that many of them reached their lofty, professional status by looking past gender. Rather than focusing on being a woman in a “man’s world,” they concentrate on what it really takes to succeed: hard work and dedication. And that is why they are in the top positions. Once our fictional role model, Peggy Olson, realized she was talented and had the skills necessary to be as competent as (if not more than) the male copywriters, she put her gender aside and expected to be treated not worse, not better, but the same as her male counterparts. Most importantly, Peggy
demanded equal pay. Yet here we are, 50 years later, running circles again around the ideas of different pay for males and females. The numbers vary depending on the source, but it is estimated that women make, on a national average, 77 cents for every dollar men make. That can be quite an upsetting statistic – until you look at the data behind the numbers. First of all, this number represents middle-aged women. Females aged 30 and under, on average, make more money than males. In Dallas, women under 30 make $1.18 for every man’s $1. The “77 cents statistic” is also based on annual salaries, necessitating a change in perspective when you look at the field of education. The vast majority of educators are women, and typically educators only work nine months each year. The annual pay gap statistic does not take into account that on average, women work fewer hours a year than men. By looking at the monthly salary of educators rather than annual, the pay gap would shrink significantly and most likely disappear. The time for the complete dissolution of the national annual pay gap is near. In 2010, for every three women that earned a B.A. degree, only two men did the same. And the number of women receiving higher education degrees has continued to grow a great deal in the four years since those numbers were reported. Also, 13 of the 15 job categories projected to see the greatest growth in the next 10 years are dominated by women. It is reasonable to believe that over the next decade, the pay gap will entirely reverse itself and women will be outearning men. A vanguard in this soon-to-be eradicated pay gap is the reality that the structure of households and families is changing. More and more women today are opting for careers over family. For those that do have children, it is not rare to see the wife bring home a bigger paycheck than her husband. The days of women as stay-at-home mothers are dwindling. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is an advocate of mother-father duty equality and believes that “our culture needs to find a robust image of female success that is first, not male, and second, not a white woman on the phone, holding a crying baby.” Ms. Sandberg, meet Ms. Olson. Peggy Olson represents the image of female who reaches the top by refusing to believe that she deserves anything less. So, rather than focusing on trying to emulate the characteristics of successful men, businesswomen and businessmen of today need to focus on the fact that working hard and exuding confidence are the tools you need to “get liberated” like Peggy Olson and become a leader. After all, why shouldn’t you be at the top? Over the next several page, you’ll get to meet women who refused to submit to assumptions about gender limitations and earned recognition as the 50 Most Influential Women in Arizona Business for 2014.
it is obvious that Arizona is a leader for female-owned businesses
31 AB | July-August 2014