Women’s labor force participation rose to 57.4% in 2019 from about 43% in 1970. [NYT 5/8/22]
27% of the cadets the Naval Academy, 22% of the cadets of the Airforce
Academy, and 22% of the cadets at West Point are women.
Economist Lisa Cook is the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve Board. Her confirmation came in a 50-50 vote in the Senate with Vice President Harris issuing the tie-breaking vote. No Republicans voted for Cook. [WP 5/10/22]
Women comprised 45% of all new Fortune 500 board appointments in 2021, a new high. Overall, the percentage of women on boards has slowly risen to 29% from 19% in 2015. [Axios Markets 5/4/22]
Jacky Hunt-Broserma, a 46-year-old from Arizona (a South African native) who runs on a blade (a carbon-fiber prosthesis) because of an amputation, has just run 104 marathons in 104 days. [Mike Allen, Axios AM 4/29/22]
Samia Suluhu Hassan, who had been Tanzania’s first female vice president, was elevated to president last spring becoming the country’s first female leader. She is currently the only female head of government in Africa. [NYT 4/16/22]
Sunisa Lee of Auburn University is the first women’s all-around Olympic gold medalist to compete in college gymnastics in the United States [NYT 4/16/22]
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to the Supreme Court, becoming the first Black woman to ascend to the nation’s highest court in its 233-year history. When she joins the court, later this year, for the first time in history, white men will be in the minority on the nine-justice Supreme Court. Jackson will join one other Black justice (Clarence Thomas) and three other female justices (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett).
Jackson will replace Justice Steve Breyer for whom she once clerked.
[Wake Up to Politics 4/8/22]
Among women ages 18-49 in 11 developed nations, the United States had the highest maternal mortality rate by far of 23.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. There were 55.3 deaths per 100,000 births for Black women, 19.1 deaths per 100,000 for white woman and 18.2 deaths per 100,000 for Hispanic women.
[C-SPAN Axios Vitals 4/5/22]
Frontier Airlines hired Emily Howell Warner in 1973, making her the first permanent female pilot for a U.S. passenger airline. [NYT 4/24/22] (In 2020, according to the FAA, 7% of the 103,879 commercial airlines are women.)