The gender gap between men's and women's pay and employment -- which some analysts attribute to discrimination and others to different life choices -- is disappearing.
Today, women make up almost half of the U.S. workforce.
Yet only 7 to 9 percent of senior managers in Fortune 1000 companies are women. Nevertheless, that's a huge increase from just 1.5 percent in the mid-1980s.
Real progress has been made in the number of women owning their own firms.
Demographers think one reason for these advances is more education. Over the past 35 years, more and more women have earned higher degrees. In 1960, less than 4 percent of master's degrees in business went to women. Today, more than one-third do.
Source: Charles Oliver, "Is the U.S. Gender Gap Shrinking?" Investor's Business Daily, February 22, 1966.
Supporters of a measure which would end California's affirmative action programs have filed about one million petition signatures -- perhaps enough to put the so-call California Civil Rights Initiative on the state's November ballots. The proposed constitutional amendment would end state programs that give gender or racial preferences in government hiring and contracting, and in public education.
Since only a little more than half of Californians are non-Hispanic whites, nearly half the state's population may be eligible for affirmative action assistance.
Source: Sally Ann Stewart, "Affirmative Action Faces Showdown," USA Today, February 22, 1996.