Panel: Progress Made For Women, But Ways To Go

Women have made progress in areas such as health care, education, the private sector and nonprofit organizations, but they continue to face barriers to full equality.

Those were among the observations made by a panel at the Clinton School of Public Service Monday. The panel was discussing the No Ceilings Full Participation Report, a study that had been released March 9 that was the result of a collaboration involving the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.

The panel discussion was moderated by Terri McCullough, director of No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, and featured Marcy Doderer, president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Children’s Hospital; Scott Shirey, founder and director of KIP Delta Public Schools; Beth Keck, senior director of Women’s Economic Empowerment for Walmart; and Dara Richardson-Heron, chief executive officer of YWCA USA.

McCullough said that while gaps remain in the data, there is much to celebrate. Maternal mortality worldwide has fallen by almost half, and women outnumber men in colleges. On the other hand, in 2010 women earned only 18 percent of computer science bachelor’s degrees – down from 37 percent in 1984. She said that fewer than 3 in 10 countries have laws against gender discrimination, while the U.S. is one of nine countries that doesn’t provide paid maternal leave for women with infants.

In health care, Doderer said that while progress is being made, Arkansas’ pace of change is slower than the rest of the country’s. Arkansas has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate, the fourth highest teen birth rate, and the seventh highest infant mortality rate.

“If you think about the profile of that young mom, she’s often less than 20 by definition, rarely has a high school degree, is often a smoker, is not married, and is much more likely to be a minority,” she said.

Doderer said women have an opportunity to make an impact on American health care. She said 75% of health care workers are women, the profession has a higher percentage than others of female CEOs, and half the students enrolled in medical school next year will be women.

Shirey said results are mixed in education. Female students in Arkansas last year took 5,000 more AP exams than males. Four-year high school graduation rates in Arkansas are 81% for girls and 75% for boys. Women graduate at higher rates than men at all four-year public and private universities in Arkansas except one.

But nationally boys score a point higher on the ACT, and they score 0.2 higher in Arkansas. Twenty-four percent of boys in Arkansas are college-ready across the ACT’s four major categories versus 20% for women. While 82% of elementary education teachers across the country are female, only 20% of the state’s school superintendents are women. A large pay gap exists for female faculty chairs of colleges and universities, and only one four-year school, Arkansas Tech, has a female president.

Only 17% of state legislators are female, he said. Later, McCullough asked how many in the audience of mostly women had run for office. Only a few raised their hands.