DiversityInc - May 2010

EDI TOR’SLE T TER
Five of the six amazing women featured here as the Women We Love had a key advantage in their opportunities to transcend obstacles of poverty,
disability or limited expectations: They were born in the United
States. The sixth woman, Dr. Rohini Anand, grew up in India where
an arranged marriage was her future, but she was able to come to the United States to attend
graduate school and create new freedoms and opportunities for herself.

;GENDER INEQUALITIES;

The Worldwide
Oppor tun it y

For women around the world, the opportunities are far more limited. DiversityInc recently completed the first round of a global diversity-management survey, in which we ascertained that the one demographic measured everywhere is gender and the avenues for women are starkly limited in most other countries.

Consider this: In the United States, female literacy is equal to male literacy. In India, male literacy is almost a 2-to- 1 ratio compared with female literacy. While women receive 58 percent of the degrees in the United States, they receive only 42 percent of degrees in India and 47 percent in China (CIA – The World Factbook).

Now consider this: While all of
The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50
Companies for Diversity® recruit
for women in the United States,
only 33 percent of companies that
responded to our global survey do
this in Asia. While all of the
DiversityInc Top 50 have talent-
development programs aimed at
women, only 40 percent of respon-
dents do in Asia. And while all of
the DiversityInc Top 50 have
employee-resource groups (and
companies almost always start with
one for women), only 19 percent of
respondents in Asia do.