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What Working Women Want Mo$t

Guest post by: Gayle Kesten

Article Overview: A new survey of some 12,000 working women found that above all else--flexible schedules, more affordable health and child care, etc.--working women most want a (freakin') raise. And some jerk named Dan has a *brilliant* idea as to how they can get one.

What Working Women Want Mo$t

First: A little background.

Last month advocacy group Working America published the results of its 2008 Ask a Working Woman survey, co-sponsored with the AFL-CIO. Some 12,000 working women participated. The main finding: Above all else--flexible schedules, more affordable health and child care, etc.--working women most want a (freakin') raise.

"Unemployment is up, the credit crunch is squeezing people and gas prices are hitting record highs. America’s working women need a raise and a break," said Karen Nussbaum, Working America's executive director, on the company's Web site.

Here's a closer look at more of what the survey found:
* Asked what would make life substantially easier, 53% of working women said a 10% boost in their paychecks would do the trick. Next on the list was better health care, cited by 20%. That's a pretty wide gap.
* Given more free time (haha), 50% of respondents said they'd work a second job, followed by 43% who said they'd spend more time with family.
* A better paying job vs. a job that's more fun? Money, again, won out for a whopping 72% of working women.
* Another whopper--80% of respondents said having kids has negatively impacted their careers. Two-thirds also think their chances for a promotion would increase if they were male, younger or more attractive.
* In terms of expectations, 59% of working women thought they'd be making more money than they are, while 66% expected to have less debt.

Now: Back to Dan. Dear Dan read BusinessWeek's Working Parent blog about the Ask a Working Woman survey. He was the first to comment. His words of wisdom? "Try working a little harder, stop leaving early to pick up little johnny and maybe you'd get a raise."
I think Dan better crawl back under his rock before an avalanche of them begins.

Your thoughts? How would you have answered the survey (available for download here as a PDF)? Do you think there's any truth to Dan's words?

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Article Tags: advocacy group, affordable health, afl cio, better health care, blog archives, businessweek, campaign id, credit crunch, flexible schedules, karen nussbaum, record highs, second job, time with family, whopper, wide gap, woman survey, words of wisdom, working woman, working women, workingamerica org



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