Facts and figures on females from throughout the world.
By Elizabeth Ucles, Illustrations by Jessica Wetterer
66 Percent Female
Starbucks serves as one of the biggest pick-me-ups for women consumers on a day-to-day basis. But Starbucks is also a major employer of women. Fortune named the coffee-chain giant one of the best companies to work for, noting women make up about 66 percent of its employee pool. The company’s family-friendly work environment (The corporate headquarters in Seattle offers on-site child care.) and flexible work hours (Ninety percent of employees work part time.) are among the many employee perks. As of 2014, Starbucks also funds 100 percent of women’s preventive health coverage.
4 Times as Likely
Young women are making their presence known in higher education. A study by the Pew Research Center shows millennial women are four times, or 36 percent, as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree at the same age as their Silent Generation (ages 70 and older) predecessors. Not only are more women taking up seats in college classrooms, they are also taking up more seats than young men. The same study shows millennial women are 7 percent more likely than men to earn a bachelor’s degree, a finding that has reversed from the heyday of the Silent Generation.
17 Percent of Young Girls
Girls appear to be adopting strict makeup routines at an earlier age. A recent study showed 17 percent of 12- to 14-year-olds refuse to leave the house without their makeup done. More than half of girls wear makeup almost every day and some even go to bed with a full face, despite dermatologist-proven dangers to the skin. According to Money magazine, the average woman will spend $43 on a makeup shopping trip and will spend more than $15,000 on beauty products in her lifetime. Even with common unhealthy makeup habits, 81 percent of young girls still care about having clear and healthy skin.
Twice as Likely
According to UNICEF, approximately 23 percent of Kenyan girls are married off by the time they turn 18, with 4 percent of girls married by the time they turn 15. More often than not, these girls are married to much older men. In rural parts of Kenya, girls are either seen by their families as an economic burden or valued as capital for exchanging goods, money and livestock. According to Girls Not Brides, a global partnership committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential, girls in these rural areas of Kenya are twice as likely to be married before age 18 than girls living in urban areas, which is a divide that has increased by 36 percent since 2003.
3 of Forbes’ Finest
Some pretty outstanding young women made Forbes’ Youngest 30 Under 30 list for 2018. One precocious young woman who was recognized is 13-year-old Marley Dias, the founder of #1000blackgirlbooks, a project that has collected more than 10,000 books featuring black female protagonists. Dias will also become a published author herself this year. Another young woman, 17-year-old Jackie Evancho, also made the list. The classical singer made her debut on America’s Got Talent at age 10 and has released six consecutive No. 1 classical albums since. Then there’s Iyore Olaye, age 23, who was recognized for making waves as the lead product-development engineer at Walker and Company, a tech company that creates beauty products for people of color.