U.S. Ranks #1 in Gender Equality

Imagine waking up tomorrow to the fact that the U.S. ranks #1: the world leader in gender equality.

Okay, its not true, the U.S. doesn’t rank #1 in gender equality. But what if it did…

What does your daily life look like?

What’s different about how you and other American women live?

How is your family doing?

What does gender equality mean for your home, your neighborhood, your community, your state, and the nation?

How much impact does U.S. gender equality have on the income you earn over your working lifespan?

What policies guide your business, your company and the country?

Because the U.S. ranks #1 in gender equality, other nations are trying to catch up by…?

Women’s Herstory Month: Hard Data Helps

I’m going out on a sturdy limb today and say that there’s not one leadership guru who advocates focusing exclusively on what’s wrong, what needs fixing.

We know this intuitively. We feel it in our bodies. We may even breathe differently when we focus on what’s wrong instead of what may go superbly right. When we paint a clear picture of what success looks— our positive vision— we actually think, speak, and act differently . Vision ignites passion that compels action.

But during U.S. “Women’s History Month” we tend to look more intensely at gender equality gaps than painting our positive vision for American women. Looking at gaps isn’t all bad. After all, blindly walking across a bridge that’s clearly crumbling because you’re laser-focused on what’s at the other side is risky, foolish even. Gathering and using data to infuse realistic optimism into our vision is vital.

For 9 years the World Economic Forum has offered invaluable data. The WEF annually looks across nations and ranks how well females are doing in education, health, income and political empowerment. The Global Gender Gap Report 2014 ranks the U.S. 20 ^th out of the 142 nations studied in 2014.

With all else remaining equal worldwide, it will take 81 years for the world to close the gender gap completely. Wow, that’s not a pretty vision.

Soft Data: What Women Say

“We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.” — Helen Hayes, “First Lady of American Theatre”

To gather soft (qualitative) data, what women think, feel and believe, I asked women I consider to be the She-roes next door—Main Street women—to share their perspectives on how well the U.S. is doing in terms of gender equality:

No clear picture. “I can’t even picture what equality here would look like. I’m not even sure what that would be.” -Heidi, Montana

Ignoring hard data. “Women, we can check that box, we’ve got that done. Let’s move on to others who need rights protected.” –Kate, Florida

Destructive definitions. “Here, success is defined as working to the end of your pregnancy, working 12 hours a day, and making a lot of money. This is tragic. This is why our country will fall even further.”-Ali, Hawaii

Danger of American exceptionalism. “We’re supposed to be the superpower, the nation of rights, an example to the world—look at us. I’ve faced discrimination all my life as a woman, Black, Black Hispanic. I’ve been the only woman in the boardroom…”–Lisa, D.C.

Fear hurts. “I think there’s a layer of fear hanging over the country that infiltrates every part of our lives. Fear that we will not give our children the future, the lives that we had; fear that the dignity and respect for each human will not be there; fear that our freedom is being taken away. A paralyzing fear that the harder we work, the more scarce great opportunities are.”—Jennifer, Nebraska

Lack role models. “We still don’t have leadership roles and that is devastating to the generations of females coming up behind us—they don’t have adequate role models.”—Diane, New Mexico

Focus on appearance. “Looks still matter way more than they should. Here we are in the land of female fighter pilots, where the glass ceiling has been broken in many ways, but how you look really defines your trajectory in the world.” – Mary, Maryland

Daily costs. “It is more expensive being a girl—haircuts, dry cleaning, health insurance. If we had gas stations that had men pumps and women pumps, the women would be paying more for gas.” –Jane, Colorado

Culture of inequality. “We’re still not fully equal to men. We have a culture where we’re still not equal. We’re still fighting and have our hustle on. The inequity is causing us to be so powerful, so strong.”-Alicia, California

The Superpower’s Superwomen. “There is so much stress on us to be superwoman.”-Elizabeth, North Carolina

The Top 10 : What Our Vision Could Look Like

One sure-fire way to shake off an exclusive gaps-focus and move back toward vision is to look to others who are succeeding in ways we are not (e.g. the top 10 gender equality nations; click on sub-heading The Top 10).

This year, let’s make U.S. Women’s History Month a time to not only identify the gaps but to paint a clearer picture of what gender equality would look like in America.

Imagine: the U.S. is #1 in gender equality.

Featured image via elenaangel.com.

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