Did you know that only 5% of the top 1% of income earners in the US are women?
If the US were a big cake, the 1% earning men are the frosting, while the 1% women are the sprinkles on top of the frosting.
Of the 1.5 million US households in the top 1%, which is about $750k on average, only 5% of them have a woman earning enough on her own to qualify. That’s about 75,000 women in the US total.
Men in the 1% = 1,425,000 = Population of Philadelphia PA
Women in the 1% = 75,000 = Population of Kalamazoo MI
Not surprisingly, there isn’t much research about 1% income earning women.
How This Study Started
I was surprised to learn that so few women were in the 1%. Clearly the Wall Street leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, the industry moguls, the tech gods are men. But out of 1.5 million people, I assumed all of the women I knew who had gone to top schools, gotten graduate degrees and joined competitive fields were still in the game, earning a lot of money.
As an independent consultant that did not get an MBA or work in finance, I had always figured there were many women with a higher income than me. How could I be in such a small group when I was not even close to the highest achieving woman I had known over my lifetime?
After many hours researching, reality came into focus:
More females are high school valedictorians than men.
More women are flooding the workforce, even in competitive careers.
But once they reach early-mid career, things change for many high achieving women.
Women who are in “greedy careers” have little flexibility to manage their personal lives
Successful women who have high income husbands are more likely to leave the workforce when they have children.
Many women feel stuck in their career path, but don’t know how to make a big leap
Yet at the same time, women overall are making huge strides in the workforce. Nearly half of all workers in the US are women and there are more women ascending to management positions. Lots of women are now the primary earners for their families. But we all know that average income for women is still far below men.
Lots of working women. Lots of capable, ambitious women. Not a lot of high income women.
There is not enough information to help women get past the many hurdles in their way to achieving a sustainable high income. Very little information outside of anecdotes and one-off interviews exists about women who found a way to succeed long-term and earn a top income.
The story is deflating. I immediately felt compelled to find the positive thread.
We need to understand high income women and highlight what is working. We succeed when we have insights and inspiration for a future where there are many more high income women working. We should feel excited and included - whether we have an income or not.
So, I created a survey project for that purpose. For the past several months, I have surveyed and interviewed many 1% women. This report provides some of the only data-driven insights available about who they are, what they do and what they think about their careers.
Why it matters
Statistically women are often focused on family, helping people, and passions. They might be stay-at-home moms or part time service workers, nurses, teachers or non-profit employees. They might be artists, personal trainers or hair stylists. They might have had a lucrative job but left it. These women all play valuable roles in society, but unless they make a lot of money, they don’t have the power they need.
When someone makes money, they get to make more decisions and have more control over outcomes. Not just in domestic life, but in our world.
If more women make more money, we can amplify our power, and improve our world.
Knowing how women succeed at earning a high income also matters because the current narrative available to women isn’t helpful. School isn’t preparation enough for life at the top of the work world. Greedy careers trap women and force them to make impossible choices. Men at the top are willing to take risks, willing to fight for what they want and bend the rules. This is the world we live in. Women need a roadmap to succeed in this reality.
My goal is to help women play the game their way. If being valedictorian, getting into a good college and being a promising associate at a top firm is not directly translating to long term success in the work world for many women, we need to connect the dots to see what is.
The research here starts to put the picture together.
