Western Montana InBusiness: "Women are now the most powerful engine of global growth."

I couldn’t help smiling a few months back when The Economist, Britain’s ever-irreverent weekly news magazine, provided this assessment of "womenomics."

By SHERRY DEVLIN

"Women are becoming more important in the global marketplace not just as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors," the magazine enthused. "Women have traditionally done most of the household shopping, but now they have more money of their own to spend. Surveys suggest that women make perhaps 80 percent of consumers’ buying decisions – from health care and homes to furniture and food."

In fact, nations whose economies are lagging – Germany, Italy and France, for example – simply don’t have enough women in the work force, the analysis suggested. And in poor countries, "the underutilization of women stunts economic growth."

"Making better use of women’s skills is not just a matter of fairness," The Economist reported. "Plenty of studies suggest that it is good for business, too. Women account for only 7 percent of directors on the world’s corporate boards – 15 percent in America, but less than 1 percent in Japan.

"Yet a study by Catalyst, a consultancy, found that American companies with more women in senior management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top."

By this point in the article, I had my daughter on the phone.

It’s hard to explain, though, to younger women how much things have changed over the past 30 years. When I graduated from journalism school, not only were there very few female newspaper editors, most female newspaper reporters were relegated to covering "women’s beats."

Or as one of my first bosses told me: "Women write about schools and food, Sherry. Not cops."

You can imagine what I resolved – quietly – to become that day.

What a huge leap we’ve made in the decades since – far past whether women can write about crime, politics or business – to a world where women increasingly hold top corporate jobs in most industries. A woman, Mary Junck, is the CEO of the corporation that owns the Missoulian. Another woman, Joyce Dehli, is the company’s vice president for news.

Of course, true equality continues to elude many female workers.

"Women remain perhaps the world’s most underutilized resource," The Economist concluded in its April 12 report. "Many are still excluded from paid work; many do not make best use of their skills."

And how about women in Montana? A recent U.S. Census Bureau study found that full-time female workers in Montana earn 67 cents for every dollar earned by men working the same hours and occupations – the largest gap of any state in the nation.

A closer inspection by the Montana Research and Analysis Bureau found that average wages for men were higher in every industry studied, regardless of whether the industry employed more men or women.

It’s with this mixture of "wow things have really changed" and "whoa we have a long way to go" that this month’s edition of Western Montana InBusiness looks at women in business.

We talked with men and women about the wage gap, asked several prominent Missoula women to share their own stories and looked to the future. What’s next for women in business?

Already, many women said their companies hire and promote the best person for the job – not the best man, not the best woman, the best person. Nationwide, 140 women enroll in college each year for every 100 men. In Britain, more women than men are doctors and lawyers in training.

The world is still changing for women in business. And the change, it seems, is good for both women and for business.

Sherry Devlin is editor of the Missoulian and of Western Montana InBusiness Monthly. She can be reached at (406) 523-5250 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Full InBusiness Publication: http://www.mtinbusiness.com/inbiz-0608/