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Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the

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Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the [#permalink]  21 Aug 2008, 08:32
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Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1985, only 7 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry, but in 1995, over 16 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry.

In evaluating the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1985 and 1995 with regard to which of the following characteristics?

(A) The percentage of women in the workforce who were not employed in the information services industry
(B) The percentage of women who are now retired who have worked in the information services industry
(C) The percentage of women who have been promoted to managerial positions within the information services industry
(D) The percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry
(E) The percentage of men who will soon be eligible for employment in the information services industry

Thanks!
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  19 Nov 2010, 06:09
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We dont really have to get confused here. The argument TELLS us that:
(a) of all the women there were in workforce in 1985, 7% were in IS (say 21 out of 300).
(b) of all the women there were in workforce in 1995, (atleast)17% were in IS (say 170 out of 1000, or 17 out of 100. Note the argument never said the absolute number of women in workforce increased).

The argument asks us whether this change in headcount actually reflects a change in contribution in IS industry. To answer this we must know whether the number of men in IS increased, decreased, or remained constant.

D is clear winner.
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  19 Nov 2010, 23:04
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tarek99 wrote:
Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1985, only 7 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry, but in 1995, over 16 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry.

In evaluating the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1985 and 1995 with regard to which of the following characteristics?

(A) The percentage of women in the workforce who were not employed in the information services industry
(B) The percentage of women who are now retired who have worked in the information services industry
(C) The percentage of women who have been promoted to managerial positions within the information services industry
(D) The percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry
(E) The percentage of men who will soon be eligible for employment in the information services industry
Thanks!

It is a straightforward application of mathematics / Data sufficiency. If someone were to tell you
Q)Is it possible to calculate the percentage of women in the Information service sector?
1)7 % of women in all the sectors work in the information service in 1985
2) 16% of women in all the sectors work in the information service 1995
If u were to combine the two premises,

To calculate the percentage of women in the Information services sector, you have to use the formula,
portion of women in information services= no. of women in information services/(no. of women in information services + no. of men in information services)
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  21 Aug 2008, 12:17
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tarek99 wrote:
yap! you're surely correct. The OA is D. So start explaining!

Women: (IS - Information Services)
In 1985 -- 7 % women in IS 93% in other sectors.
In 1995 -- >16% woman in IS <84% in other sectors

Assume Men Proporation can have two possibilities
(Case 1)
In 1985 -- 10 % men in IS 90% in other sectors.
In 1995 -- >35% men in IS <65% in other sectors
(OR)
(Case 2)
In 1985 -- 10 % men in IS 90% in other sectors.
In 1995 -- >15% men in IS <85% in other sectors

Conclucsion :
Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago.

Case 1 Attacks the conclusion: because men make up a larger proporation workers than women.
Case 2 Supports the conclusion: because men smaller proporation workers than women.

So Option D most usefull to evaluate the above arugment.
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  22 Nov 2010, 12:33
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Great work on this question, everyone. I'll agree wholeheartedly that D is the correct answer, and add this:

When statistics are used in CR questions, the statistic given almost always fails to meet the conclusion directly, so focus your attention on the conclusion:

Women make up a higher proportion OF THE INDUSTRY

And see how that conclusion differs from the statistic given:

16% OF WOMEN employees are in that industry

Here, there is a clear distinction. We're looking for the ratio Women-in-the-Industry/Industry, but they give us Women-In-Industry/Total Women. The denominators are off, and we need something that better fits the correct denominator "out of the entire industry".

Train yourself to sniff out those subtle distinctions in wording when you're given statistics on CR problems, because almost always the stats that they provide are just a few degrees off of the statistic needed to draw that conclusion.
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Save $100 on live Veritas Prep GMAT Courses and Admissions Consulting Enroll now. Pay later. Take advantage of Veritas Prep's flexible payment plan options. Veritas Prep Reviews SVP Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 1824 Location: New York Followers: 29 Kudos [?]: 561 [0], given: 5 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 21 Aug 2008, 10:02 tarek99 wrote: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1985, only 7 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry, but in 1995, over 16 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry. In evaluating the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1985 and 1995 with regard to which of the following characteristics? a) The percentage of women in the workforce who were not employed in the information services industry b) The percentage of women who are now retired who have worked in the information services industry c) The percentage of women who have been promoted to managerial positions within the information services industry d) The percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry e) The percentage of men who will soon be eligible for employment in the information services industry Please explain your answer. Thanks! D. I will explain if it is correct. _________________ Your attitude determines your altitude Smiling wins more friends than frowning SVP Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 1553 Followers: 8 Kudos [?]: 333 [0], given: 1 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 21 Aug 2008, 11:20 yap! you're surely correct. The OA is D. So start explaining! SVP Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 1553 Followers: 8 Kudos [?]: 333 [0], given: 1 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 22 Aug 2008, 12:29 x2suresh wrote: tarek99 wrote: yap! you're surely correct. The OA is D. So start explaining! Women: (IS - Information Services) In 1985 -- 7 % women in IS 93% in other sectors. In 1995 -- >16% woman in IS <84% in other sectors Assume Men Proporation can have two possibilities (Case 1) In 1985 -- 10 % men in IS 90% in other sectors. In 1995 -- >35% men in IS <65% in other sectors (OR) (Case 2) In 1985 -- 10 % men in IS 90% in other sectors. In 1995 -- >15% men in IS <85% in other sectors Conclucsion : Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. Case 1 Attacks the conclusion: because men make up a larger proporation workers than women. Case 2 Supports the conclusion: because men smaller proporation workers than women. So Option D most usefull to evaluate the above arugment. but I still have a question regarding your explanation. I don't think that the argument is making any comparison between men and women. the argument is only focusing on women by comparing the proportion of women in 1995 to the proportion of women in 1985. Whether men have increased or decreased, I think that's not relevant. Maybe i'm wrong?? but I honestly don't see the point of looking at men because the number of men can still go either up or down, know what I mean? i'm really sorry for troubling you, but could you elaborate more? thanks Manager Joined: 12 May 2006 Posts: 186 Followers: 1 Kudos [?]: 34 [0], given: 0 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 22 Aug 2008, 16:09 Tarek, This is why i chose D. The first line of the argument says "Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago." One proportion on a whole cannot increase unless the other proportion of the whole is either decreasing or increasing at a slower rate than the first one. So to find if the proportion of women has increased we need to know about the proportion increase in men. Manager Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 202 Followers: 2 Kudos [?]: 17 [0], given: 1 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 22 Aug 2008, 20:11 Yes, to find out the proportion among all workers, one need have to have percentage of men along with women workers. _________________ Nobody dies a virgin, life screws us all. Senior Manager Joined: 06 Apr 2008 Posts: 449 Followers: 1 Kudos [?]: 71 [0], given: 1 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 23 Aug 2008, 23:28 tarek99 wrote: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1985, only 7 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry, but in 1995, over 16 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry. In evaluating the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1985 and 1995 with regard to which of the following characteristics? a) The percentage of women in the workforce who were not employed in the information services industry b) The percentage of women who are now retired who have worked in the information services industry c) The percentage of women who have been promoted to managerial positions within the information services industry d) The percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry e) The percentage of men who will soon be eligible for employment in the information services industry Please explain your answer. Thanks! IMO D) We are talking about proportion of women so we need to know what percentage of men were employed SVP Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 1553 Followers: 8 Kudos [?]: 333 [0], given: 1 Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink] 24 Aug 2008, 01:24 grepro wrote: Tarek, This is why i chose D. The first line of the argument says "Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago." One proportion on a whole cannot increase unless the other proportion of the whole is either decreasing or increasing at a slower rate than the first one. So to find if the proportion of women has increased we need to know about the proportion increase in men. But then the argument says that the percentage of ALL women in the workforce. So let's say that, for example, 7 percent of the women in the labor force were employed in the service industry in 1985. Then in 1995, 17 percent of the women in the labor force were employed in the service industry. Notice, the argument never said that 17 percent of the labor force IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY are women. Rather, it said that 17 percent of ALL the WOMEN in ALL the LABOR FORCE are women. Wouldn't it make sense to see whether the total population of all the women in ALL the labor force increased or decreased? because that can truly determine whether the number of women in the service industry truly increased. Current Student Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 169 Location: Berkeley, CA Schools: Berkeley-Haas MBA WE 1: Investment Management (fund of funds) WE 2: Private Equity ($2bn generalist fund)
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  24 Aug 2008, 05:41
tarek99 wrote:
But then the argument says that the percentage of ALL women in the workforce. So let's say that, for example, 7 percent of the women in the labor force were employed in the service industry in 1985. Then in 1995, 17 percent of the women in the labor force were employed in the service industry. Notice, the argument never said that 17 percent of the labor force IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY are women. Rather, it said that 17 percent of ALL the WOMEN in ALL the LABOR FORCE are women. Wouldn't it make sense to see whether the total population of all the women in ALL the labor force increased or decreased? because that can truly determine whether the number of women in the service industry truly increased.

Tarek, while I choose D first, I agree with you that the answer D does need an extra assumption.

The "proportion" here relates to the mix of men and women:

Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the IT sector (than men do).

Assumption: the number of female workers and male workers did not decrease (at least stayed the same) from 1985 to 1995

1985: 7% of women workers were in IT (say 7 of all 100 female workers)
1995: 16% of women workers were in IT (say 16 of all 100 female workers)

1985: 10% of men workers were in IT (say 10 of all 100 male workers)
1995: 34% of men workers were in IT (say 34 of all 100 male workers)

1985: 7female, 10male - 35% of workers in IT were women
1995: 16female, 34male - 32% of workers in IT were women.

You need the % of men in the industry to get the above red portion

Now for ALL of this to make sense, the assumption needs to be made that the general number of female and male workers was on an upward trend.
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  19 Nov 2010, 22:46
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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  22 Nov 2010, 04:14
D.
The allocation of women within working women might have increased in last 10 years to information services industry I.e. Other industries might have a lower proportion of women now. However the overall % of women in this industry may or may not have changed. Thus can only be ascertained by getting the proportion of men employed in this industry.

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Re: CR: Proportion of women [#permalink]  22 Nov 2010, 11:01
certainly d
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Re: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the [#permalink]  27 Nov 2011, 12:00
This one was hard. After reviewing replies, D makes sense.
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Re: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the [#permalink]  28 Nov 2011, 21:38
+1 for D
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Re: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the [#permalink]  10 Dec 2011, 02:28
tarek99 wrote:
Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the information services industry than they did ten years ago. This is partly shown by the fact that in 1985, only 7 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry, but in 1995, over 16 percent of women in the workforce were employed in the information services industry.

In evaluating the argument above, it would be most useful to compare 1985 and 1995 with regard to which of the following characteristics?
(D) The percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry

Thanks!

Choice D is correct because if the percentage of men in the workforce who were employed in the information services industry INCREASE/DECREASE the remain percentage (women) will changes according to the indirect factor. If the percentage of men in workforce remains, the conclusion above is validity.
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Re: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the [#permalink]  10 Dec 2011, 23:19
+1 for D
Re: Women make up a larger proportion of workers in the   [#permalink] 10 Dec 2011, 23:19

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