Some Reasons for Optimism This International Women's Day

Women Changing the World -Power Wielding Influence 

We need to focus on some bleak statistics which highlights the pervasive gender discrimination with regards to high level positions and salary. Though the progress is slow, the fact is that women are achieving a great amount of success and making headway across a diverse array of industries and field.

As the 107th annual International Women’s Day is round the corner, - March 8th, we could focus on some of the few examples of remarkable progress, women have made to the changing world in the face of power wielding influence with positive impact on most of the aspects on the globally connected world. We could take the opportunity to applaud those who have accomplished successes and triumphed, rising up with determination, making incredible progress in the male world.

Though these changes have occurred in great measures, there is still measure of some restrain in certain areas where women still face significant obstacles in achieving the gender parity, intending to hope for, but this should not prevent or overshadow the large steps women are undertaking in the present scenarios in the form of leadership, innovators as well as money earners. Women in fact, have now broken all barriers connected to a male oriented world and have shown excellence in the various field of industryand gradually has proved to be a multitasked worker when compared to men as well as filling in the wage gap.

Women – World’s Billionaires 2015

With regards to political powerhouses, women’s representation is quite high in Washington where women have been making up around one fifth of the 114th Congress. Twenty seats in the U.S. Senate are made up of female lawmakers with a record of 84 seats in the House from 80 at the time of the last Congress.

Newcomers who include Elise Stefanikseem to be the youngest woman ever elected at the age of 30 sworn in, together with Mia Love the first black female Republican. Sixty three percent of the Americans are of the belief that while the presence of women in high political positions would stay ineffective, the country would be governed in a much better way if women were entrusted with the high post at the office level. On Forbes annual ranking of the World’s Billionaires, the year 2015 broke the record for women and in a span of three years, the number of female billionaires had grown by a ninety percent with around 197 women represented in the ranking for that year.

Women – Dynamic Engines for Economic Growth

Some of the notable newcomers worth mentioning were Elizabeth Holmes, who was the founder of the blood testing company, Theranos, the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, at the age of 31. Women will continue to be most dynamic engines for the purpose of economic growth in the country and the latest report – Open State of Women-Owned Business has estimated over 9 million women owned businesses in U.S which generates revenue of over $1.4 trillion with 7.8 million jobs.

Research carried out indicates that female representation on corporate boards has a strong connection which has improved the financial performance of a company. Credit Suisse’s study showed that companies with a female director performed better than an all-male board by an average of 5% and likely to pay higher dividends to shareholders since 2012.

It was also found that women participating in senior management as well as C-level post seem to positively impact the bottom line. Moreover, Bespoke Investment analysis also portrayed that since the past five years, companies led by women on the S&P, 500 of them have posted a 19.5% gain in stock against a 14.9% uptick, for those managed by male CEOs.