Hello Second Shift Members!
Last Saturday Gina and Jenny and many of our Second Shift
team along with our friends, family and colleagues boarded a bus and headed to
D.C to join more than 1 million people taking part in Women’s Marches around
the world. It was one of the most exciting, invigorating, and emotional days in
our lives. Seeing women from all races, ages and political affiliations gather
together in solidarity was remarkable. While we are not a politically motivated
or partisan business, we are unequivocally activists for women’s rights; equality
and opportunity belong to everyone, regardless of party, age, gender, and
religion. The Second Shift, by working
to keep women in the workforce, is tackling a small piece of a much larger
social issue.
Here are some scary statistics that motivate us every day:
· Nearly 50% of
the US workforce is women.
· 70% of those
women are mothers with children under 18 years old.
· The US is the
only industrialized nation in the world to not have guaranteed paid maternity
leave.
· Women currently
hold less than 5 of Fortune 500 CEO roles.
· Women are the
main breadwinner in 4/10 families.
· Women receive
more college and graduate degrees than men.
· Women earn 80
cents to every dollar earned by men—a gender wage gap of 21%.
· 19 percent of
Fortune 500 board seats are currently held by women.
· In the 50
states, the average cost for an infant in center-based care can be as high as $17,082
per year.
Women are making incredible strides entering the workforce,
but as they move along their career paths they do not receive the advancement
and fundamental support to remain and climb the ladder of achievement and
success. Whether it is glaring gender wage differences, lack of maternity leave
and exorbitant childcare costs, the lack of support by corporations and the
government is driving women from the traditional work place. The good
news—technology has made it easy to work from anywhere at anytime and companies
like ours are here to provide opportunities so women do not have to make a
choice of “in or out.” Until then, we march!
For more photos of our day at the #WomensMarch, check us out on Instagram @TheSecond_Shift.