Ranks of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, talk show host Oprah Winfrey, first lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the list of the most admired women in the eyes of Americans, according to a Gallup poll: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranks of President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, former South African President Nelson Mandela, radio and TV personality Glenn Beck and Pope Benedict XVI on the list of the most admired men in the eyes of Americans: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Single-parent households Number of single moms living with children younger than 18 years old, according to BIGresearch: 10 million
Number of single dads living with children younger than 18 years old: 2.3 million Work for moms
Percentage of companies worldwide that plan to hire more mothers for part-time jobs during the next two years, according to a global study of more than 11,000 corporations across 15 countries commissioned by Regus: 44
Among U.S. firms, percentage that reported plans to recruit more part-time working mothers: 46
Moms today Percentage of the public who say it is more difficult to be a mother today than it was 20 or 30 years ago, according to a national survey by the Pew Research Center: 70 Percentage who say the same about being a father: 60
Percentage of Americans who say that mothers are doing a worse job today than mothers did 20 or 30 years ago: 56
Overtaxed schedules Percentage of working mothers with children younger than age 5 who said they didn’t have enough time to do what they needed to do “yesterday,” according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index: 41
Percentage of working mothers with older children who said the same: 34
Percentage of working women with no children younger than 18 who said the same: 28
Percentage of working mothers who say they do not feel well-rested: 36
Percentage of working mothers of infants and toddlers who say they do not feel well-rested: 40
Professional satisfaction Percentage of working mothers who express high satisfaction with their paid job (comparable to the satisfaction rates seen among working women without children, and similar to working men’s rates regardless of their parental status): 88
A woman’s place? Percentage of adults surveyed in 23 countries who don’t agree with the statement that “a woman’s place is in the home,” according to a Reuters News poll: 74
Ranks of Argentina, France, Mexico and Sweden on the list of countries with citizens most likely to disagree with that statement: 1, 2, 3, 4
Ranks of India, Turkey, Japan and China on the list of countries where inhabitants are most likely to agree that “a woman’s place is in the home”: 1, 2, 3, 4
Why work out? Percentage of active women who say that when they are working out regularly, they feel more inclined toward romance, according to findings based on a survey sponsored by Propel Enhanced Water and conducted by Opinion Research Corp.: 51
Percentage who say they are more likely to want to go out on the town with friends: 37
Idle Thought “Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.” —Blaise Pascal
John MacIntyre is a Nova Scotia-based author and former city magazine editor. His “Figuratively Speaking” column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.[[In-content Ad]]
