The End of Men?

The cover story of the July/August issue of The Atlantic covers the trends showing that post-industrial society may be better suited for women than men.
It started off with some basic information:
- Women have became the majority of the workforce for the first time in history
- Every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same
- In our current recession, 75% of the 8 million jobs lost were thoese belonging to men
In sum, women not only live longer than men, they do better in this economy. More of them graduate from college. They go into space and do everything men do, and sometimes they do it a whole lot better. Women are going to leave the males in the dust.
Read this article and see if you agree to this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/

Women Rules - Women Taking Over Job Market!

Yesterday, ABC announced the Diane Sawyer will be replacing Charles Gibson when he retired from the anchor chair of "ABC World News". It is a big news for Sawyer and women everywhere, because come January 2020, two of the "big three" US anchors will be women.
According to USA Today, women are on the verge of outnumbering men in the workforce for the first time, a historic reversal caused by long-term changes in women's roles and massive job losses for men during this recession.
Women held 49.83% of the nation's 132 million jobs in June and they're gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing, according to the most recent numbers available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That's a record high for a measure that's been growing steadily for decades and accelerating during the recession. At the current pace, women will become a majority of workers in October or November. The data for July will be released Friday.
The change reflects the growing importance of women as wage earners, but it doesn't show full equality, according to labor economist Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research.
On average, women work fewer hours than men, hold more part-time jobs and earn 77% of what men make, she says. Men also still dominate higher-paying executive ranks. Hopefully, this will change when more women are in the executive ranks like Sawyer.
As marketers, we should all pay more attention to the women's market, if it hasn't been on the top of your agenda already.

How Badly Has The U.S. Economy Battered Hispanic Families?

I am in total agreement with Dan Aversano, Senior Product Manager at The Nielsen Company.

There are 2 schools of though. Some said that Hispanics are less affected since this recession is largely the result of a credit crisis and substantial losses on Wall Street, and Hispanics were under-leveraged in terms of debt and, on average, had less money in equity securities.
Others believed Hispanic households have been particularly hard hit by shrinking housing starts and an ailing contracting service industry.

As Dan said, this is not a black and white situation and one has to look at various factors including unemployment rates, credit scores, GDP and confidence levels, etc.

We do know that unemployment rate of Hispanics (12.2%) hovers several percentage points above the national average (8.7%), yet lower than African American (14.7%) and did not decline in July along with that of other ethnic groups.

According to Nielsen's Homescan Hispanic Panel among both English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanics, when asked about their current financial conditions, more than half replied they were somewhat or much worse off than before—almost identical to the population as a whole.

Plus, surprisingly, unemployment did not seem to be a major source of concern. Despite steadily climbing rates through most of the first half of the year, not quite two-thirds of Hispanic respondents (63%) were very or somewhat secure about keeping their jobs. Though lower than the 72% of non-Hispanics who shared the same sentiment, it revealed an unexpected display of confidence.

Whether Hispanics are truly faring better or worse than the rest of the population, they are plainly concerned about their situations—just like everyone else. For example, 94% of Hispanic consumers and 93% of non-Hispanic consumers said they worry about the rising cost of food. Moreover, they are reluctant to make major purchases of cars, houses, appliances or vacations. Their homes have become the focus of many of their activities, which means eating out less often. Most important, they are going back to basics and becoming increasingly more discerning about what they need versus what they want.

Creatively Knows No Gender?????

I was reading an article in AdAge written by Karen Mallia "Creativity Knows No Gender, but Agency Creative Departments Sure Do". She mentioned about how Creative women have not enjoyed the level of success that women have found in every other advertising-agency department. The number of women in account management has doubled in the past two decades, resulting in equivalent numbers of men and women. More than half of planning and research employees are women. In media, women outnumber men 3-to-2. Yet, in creative, the ratio of men to women is 2.3-to-1.
What interesting are the readers' comments:
- Women (at least White women) still fare extraordinarily better than minorities. Is it really about gender or race - or is it really about the tactics of the ruling White male majority?
- The entire industry has been flamed for discriminatory practices since inception. The positions are mainly held by white males, PERIOD.
- An what's up with the questions they ask on a job application:are you a male, female, white, black, spanish... WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO SOMEONE'S CREATIVITY?
I personally have the experience working in a small company that is majority Asian American, a large international company that is majority white and one mid-size company that is majority Black, trust me, discrimination exist everywhere, in all ethnicity and all gender and age. How are we going to change this ... like John Lennon's famous song ... "Imagine".

Women’s Makeup, Hair Habits Unchanged by Economy

According to the new survey "Beauty Barometer" conducted by Loreal, nine in 10 of all respondetns report no change in their use of cosmetics because of the economy.
The “Beauty Barometer” survey polled 4,000 women in the US and four European countries about their cosmetic products and usage.
Additional findings from the survey:
- 40% of women have changed the makeup shades they purchase in an attemtp to be more "natural" during the current recession.
- Nearly half of US women believe wearing makeup gives them an advantage at work and makes them feel more in control.
- The majority of women surveyed (82%) believe wearing makeup makes them feel more self confident, and even more believe that wearing makeup improves their self image (86%).
- The research also found that the majority of women in the US are not compromising on hair care during the recession. Some 63% have not cut their hair to make it less expensive to maintain.
This is good news for a lot of marketers. There're still opportunities because women have products they won't forfeit during recession. You just need to make use of the consumer insights and find your way in!

'In The Black': A Financial How-To With African Americans In Mind

AaronW. Smith, a financial planner and author, recently wrote a book "In The Black: Live Faithfully, Prosper Financially" that he said address African Americans in a Christian context, but one need not be of a particular religion or race to benefit from it.

Retirement planning is his overarching theme, and he uses African Americans from all walks of life grappling with retirement issues to illustrate the breadth of challenges faced by individuals today. To guard his clients' privacy he has changed names and biographical details.
"Some of these individuals have been impacted by the income disparity and credit discrimination that impedes financial security for many African Americans," he writes. But not all. What they do have in common is a need for a plan to help them remain financially secure after retirement.
With an estimated 9 million black Baby Boomers preparing to retire and leave the workforce, "Many are panicking about not having enough money to live on for the rest of their lives," Smith writes.Smith's nine steps start with exercises to help you define and prioritize your values then set practical goals. "Our values guide our financial actions," he writes.

He counsels: "Use your good instincts to figure out the best way to teach the art of living beneath one's means." This is significant to pass along. It "can change the lives of future generations." Not just African Americans, but every Americans.

How can "White-Washing" be allowed in 2009?

On December 9th 2008, the lead roles were cast for M Night Shyamalan's upcoming film The Last Airbender and all of them were originally cast as white actors.
The Nickelodeon show "Avatar: The Last Airbender," on which this film is based, featured Asian characters in a fantasy setting inspired and informed by a variety of Asian cultures. The characters fight with East Asian martial arts, have Asian features, dress in clothing from Asian cultures, and write with Chinese characters. The cast and setting were a refreshing departure from predominantly white American media, and were a large part of the show's appeal as well as an inspiration to many Asian American children.
Fans have been up in arms. Not just Avatar fans, but also folks who generally don't like to see racist nonsense perpetuated in the movies. And let's face it, that's what this is.
Up to now, Paramount hasn't done a hell of a lot of the calm the ran rebellion, posting all sorts of ridiculous casting calls and basically ignoring East West Players and MANAA's calls for a more diverse and inclusive cast. Then, of course, there's cast member Jackson Rathbone's idiotic comments about cutting his hair and getting a tan.
The folks at Racebending have set up a YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/racebending) where fans who object to the whitewashed casting of The Last Airbender can post video messages telling producers (and America) why they won't be going to see this movie. They're taking it to the streets! With real, actual people speaking out.
Meanwhile, Viacom (parent company of Paramount), has decided to exercise its supreme authority over the internet universe by shutting down the Racebending.com protest effort's Zazzle store, claiming all but one of the products "contained content in violation of Viacom's intellectual property rights" -- not just images, but words.
So, please do something, voice out your concern and sign the petition at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/racebend/petition.html

U.S. National Guard Spanish TV Commercial In English Cable Networks

I was watching TV yesterday and started to realize something that really stood out, not necessarily in a positive way from a diversity perspective.
I realized that I don't understand the U.S. National Guard TV ads that was running on USA and LifeTime TV. Because the ads are all in Spanish even though all the programs are in English. I am sure I have not switch channels.
I know I may not be saying something that is politically correct here. But if I am in search of an American Dream, I will think that this dream ought to be in English, rather than in Spanish.
So, what's wrong here??
Is it true that in desparate need to try to grab one specific market, you can alienate the others?
In this specific case for National Guard, I will say "YES". At least for me, the commercial not only is not talking to me or those who don't know Spanish, it actually scare me and my family who are watching TV with me.