What do women want? And are they getting it?

American women who work full time earn 76 cents for every dollar men earn, according to the American Association of University Women. Furthermore, the pay gap increases with age, and women are far less likely to earn a pension than men. Women earn only 71 percent of men’s earnings during their peak career years, and only 68 percent of men’s earnings from the age of 55 to 64.

In Michigan, it is even worse; here women make 67 cents on the dollar compared to men. It’s the worst at the top, where according to the 2005 Michigan Women’s Leadership Index, only 5.7 percent of all top-compensated executives are women. And at the top of the state’s leading 100 publicly traded companies female executives make 49 cents on the male dollar, according to Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy Research.

Women make up 11.9% of U.S. corporate directors, and only three women are Fortune 500 CEOs, according to a University of Michigan/Catalyst study. Not a single Michigan Fortune 500 company has a top female officer, according to the Michigan Women’s Leadership Index.

According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, at the rate of progress achieved between 1989 and 2002, it would take more than half a century for women to achieve earnings parity with men.

Are U.S. corporations really changing? As female graduation rates from U.S. business schools rise, why do women continue to lag in earnings, benefits and rank within U.S. corporations and their boardrooms?

A group of eminent scholars, businesspeople and legal experts will convene at Wayne State to discuss how corporations encourage or discourage diversity, the domestic partner benefits controversy and what corporations are doing, or ought to be doing, to keep talented women on the road to success.

Wayne State’s Center for the Study of Citizenship is sponsoring a conference Friday, Nov. 4, on “Gender and Corporate Citizenship” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be held at the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium at the Wayne State University Law School at 471 W. Palmer Street on the North end of campus.

Gender and Corporate Citizenship panelists will include:

• Corporate Diversity Policies
  Janet B. Reid, Managing Partner, Global Lead Management
  Zanita Fenton, Professor of Law, University of Miami Law School
  Erica Beecher-Monas, Professor of Law, Wayne State University Law School

• Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
  Carolyn Buck Luce, Senior Partner, Global Accounts Group and
  Chair, Professional Women\'s Network, Ernst & Young, LLP

• Domestic Partner Benefits
  John Graham, John Graham Enterprises, LLC
  Seth Lloyd, Partner, Dykema Gossett, PLLC

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. The luncheon at Alumni House is $25.00. Please RSVP by Friday, Oct. 28, to 313-577-4530 or wsuaccounting@gmail.com.

This event is co-sponsored by The School of Business Administration, The Law School, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The Women\'s Studies Program and by The Human Resources Association of Greater Detroit.

The Center for the Study of Citizenship at Wayne State University promotes research and intellectual exchange about citizenship among a global community of scholars, students, practitioners and the general public.

Wayne State University is a premier institution offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.