2022 has been a year of ups and downs for women.
While the numbers show slow progress, there are reasons to be optimistic that gender equity in business and politics is moving in a positive direction — at least at the top.
In business, the number of female CEOs has reached historic highs this year, while in politics, several states elected their first female senators and governors. Just last week, for example, Claudine Gay became the first first person of color, and only the second woman ever, to be named president of Harvard University.
In other areas, however, progress toward gender equality has stalled. Women continue to face a significant wage gap that has hardly budged over the last 15 years, with women of color bearing the brunt of the disparity.
The year "2022 really is a mixed bag when it comes to gender equality," says Melissa Boteach, the vice president for income security and child care/early learning at the National Women's Law Center.
"Nothing can make up for the loss of our bodily autonomy with the overturn of Roe v. Wade for women and pregnant people," she continues, "but with the setbacks, there was also a lot of progress to be proud of. Women have largely recovered from the historic job losses they experienced during the pandemic, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, just to name two examples."
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