Women in Business are Barely There

Keywords for this post:
Business plans for women entrepreneurs
Minority business loans

Drat. Just when we think we're starting to make progress, along comes the Great Rug Puller and throws us on our collective ass.

The Great Rug Puller this time is the highly respected Committee of 200, the most elite women's business organization in the world. The C200 Business Leadership Index is the only comprehensive and quantifiable barometer that measures and tracks women's clout and influence in the business word and compares it to men's. It is a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 the best.

From 2004 to 2005 the Index increased about 9%;
From 2003 to 2004 the Index increased about 9%;
From 2002 to 2003 the Index increased about 8%.

With the 26% increase over the past 3 years, one would think that women are starting to catch up, wouldn't one? Wrong.

The Index as a whole now stands at 5.06, with 10 meaning that women are equal to men in business.

Good grief, you'd think we had made some progress somewhere. But the category stats are dismal.

On corporate boards, the Index stands at 3.02.
The venture capital index PLUMMETED 24% the past year, and now stands at 0.81.
With women as managers, the Index stands at 6.29.
In wages, the Index stands at 8.03.
In size of women-owned businesses, the Index stands at 3.08.

I know we are there. I know we are working. I see women all over the internet, building businesses, building relationships and growing.

But compared to men, we don't account for much yet. Damn.