ABSTRACT
Women in the United States do not have status that is comparable to that of men. Women comprise 10.9% of the board of directors’ seats at Fortune 1000 companies and only 2.5% of the top executives in U.S. companies are female (Babcock & Laschever, 2003). Women make up only 1.4% of the Fortune 500 CEOs, 14% of the Senate, 15.4% of the House of Representatives, and 23% of full professors (American Association of University Professors, 2004; Catalyst, 2005; Center for American Women and Politics, n.d.). Although women own approximately 40% of all U.S. businesses, companies owned by men receive 97.7% of the equity capital available for business growth (Babcock & Laschever, 2003). Women are reportedly also more frequently sexually harassed, interrupted in
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conversations, and addressed with inappropriate forms of familiarity than are men (Enns, 1992).
