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Choose a Career
Top Careers for Women
by Barbra Lewis |
The options are as diverse and
varied as ever.
When I was asked to write an article on
the top 10 careers for women, I thought, "Hey, that's a snap. Look up a few
statistics, check a few web sites, and badda bing, badda boom--a nice, easy top 10
list."
In doing the research, however, I didn't find a consensus among the experts.
But this is a good thing. The fact is, women's career choices have broadened so much in
recent years, as have the number of women in those fields, that any of a number of careers
could be considered "popular" choices of women today.
So, I had to set some parameters in order to pare down all these careers.
First, the women who pursue the following careers generally have earned at least a
bachelor's degree. Because numerous occupations emerged that could be considered branches
of the same career, similar jobs are grouped together under one heading. As a result, some
jobs--graphic designer for example--are categorized under several different headings as
their skills could be applied in multiple fields.
1. General business/Management
Executives and managers of all types fit here, as well as the millions of women who have
started their own businesses.
Leslie Godwin, a career counselor and contributor for womenconnect.com, has tracked women in self-owned businesses and
is writing a book to help women with burnout as they make such a dramatic lifestyle
change.
"There are now eight-million women-owned businesses in the United States," says
Godwin. "That means women run roughly one-third of today's businesses, with women
business owners employing one out of every four employees."
Perhaps the reason for this is that women in the 90s are tired of so much juggling for
an outside company's benefit. They want to be in charge.
"I have found that women start businesses for very different reasons than men,"
says Godwin. "To stereotype a bit, men start up businesses based on their previous
experience, current contacts and a belief they can make a lot more money working for
themselves. Women, on the other hand, report being much more concerned about doing
something they love, wanting more time and energy for family and personal activities and
obligations and wishing to help others through their work."
2. Computers
Because of the boom in the computer industry (especially over the last several years),
this field is wide open and doesn't look to slow any time soon. According to the Human
Resources Plaza web site, the
high-tech industry is the single-largest U.S. manufacturing employer and the largest U.S.
industry overall. Also, Commerce Department report has found that the 7.4 million workers
in this industry make some of the country's highest salaries.
"Information technology is truly driving the U.S. economy - more than previous
estimates had revealed," says Rhett Dawson, president of the Information
Technology Industry Council, a
Washington-based trade group of U.S. Information technology companies. In fact, the
Internet is growing faster than all other technologies that have preceded it. According to
the Commerce Department, "Radio existed for 38 years before it had 50 million
listeners, and television took 13 years to reach that mark. The Internet crossed the line
in just four years."
Popular jobs in the computer field are Webmaster, systems analysts, programmers,
engineers, software designers, graphic artists and graphic designers.
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