A quiet revolution has changed the status of American women; so what’s new now? Check it out.

• Forty years ago, one-third of all workers were women; now nearly half are. Rather than increasing conflict or competition between the sexes, more than three-quarters of Americans (76% of men, 80% of women) view this as positive for society; only 19% say it’s negative. And that view holds regardless of age, race or political ideology: 81% of African Americans view it as a positive change, along with 84% of Latinos, 88% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans.The Abt SRBI poll of 3,413 adults (1,599 men and 1,814 women) was conducted by telephone between Aug. 31 - Sept. 15

• Men and women largely agree on the importance of most life goals. Ninety-two percent of men and 96% of women say being healthy is very important to them; being financially secure is very important to 74% of men and 81% of women; having a fulfilling job, 73% men, 72% women. Having children is a top goal of 60% of men and 66% of women. The biggest difference in life goals? Fifty-eight percent of men describe religious faith as very important vs. 68% of women.

• Being married is very important to 58% of men vs. 53% of women. Only 38% of men strongly agree that a woman can have a fulfilling life without marriage, compared with 54% of women. Both white women and highly educated women (61%) strongly agree vs. 37% of Latino women. Of both black and Latino men, only 35% strongly agree. Finally, two-thirds of both men and women describe their marriage or partnership as very happy.

• Eighty-nine percent of both men and women are comfortable with the notion of a family in which a woman earns more than a man. Seventy-four percent of men and 71% of women reject the notion that women need to behave more like men to be taken seriously in the workplace. Seventy-one percent of men say they are more comfortable than their fathers with women working outside the home. Seventy percent of women say they are less financially dependent on their spouse than their mothers were.However, 69% of women think men resent women who have more power than they do; only 49% of men agree. Sixty percent of men say there are no longer any barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace; only 50% of women agree. Finally, only 29% of men say that female bosses are harder to work for than male bosses, compared with 45% of women. (more…)