Do women make as much money as men do? How many women of color are world leaders? What is the poverty rate for people with disabilities? Which state has the highest rate of disability? Answers to these questions and more can be found within 2007 Wow Facts: Women and Diversity.
2007 Wow Facts: Women and Diversity, published by Diversity Best Practices, provides more than 18,000 up-to-date facts relating to women, people of color, persons with disabilities, aging persons, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered communities. The first eighty pages cover facts and trends relating to women, the remaining 300 pages relate to the number of diverse communities previously listed.
This resource is an expansive tool useful for everyone. Over the last few decades, the face of the professional world has been gradually transforming. Leaders and professionals are no longer comprised of straight, white men. Women currently hold 16.3% of the seats in Congress and 16.4% of the House of Representative seats (p.35). Twenty-seven percent of African Americans in the labor force worked in management, professional, or related occupations (p. 104). Fifty-one percent of Fortune 500 companies offered health benefits to same-sex couples (p. 247).
The chapter regarding Disability also contains a myriad of useful facts. For example, 72% of people 80 years or older have a disability (p. 170), a useful reminder that many of us are just temporarily able-bodied. The authors have divided disability into three domains: communication, physical, or mental disabilities. Twenty-six million people have a disability in one of these domains, 14.2 million people have a disability in two domains, and 4.4 million people have a disability in all three domains. Interestingly, disability differs by gender, but the critical third variable for this difference is age. Eight percent of boys and 4% of girls ages 5 to 15 have disabilities. However, 42% of women and 38% of men age 65 or older have disabilities (p. 171). This chapter also goes on to list statistics on disability by state, economic factors relating to disability, disability by race, education statistics, awards given to people with disabilities, and an extensive resources section.
The information presented in this book is (not to sound redundant) diverse. For instance, some chapters begin with a timeline of significant days for one particular group. Some include charts, some include a section on common myths about a particular group, then go on to disprove the myth with fact. Almost every section ends by giving a list of resources, contact information and website included. This is useful for someone looking to learn more about a particular social group. For instance, disability is such a broad term, it may be necessary to look at one of the resources for a specific disability to find more information.
2007 Wow Facts is so thorough and dense that its only fault is not presenting information in a consistent format. However, a detailed table of contents makes information easy to find. This book is an amazing resource for anyone curious about the world in which we live.
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