Women outnumber men in all but five states — 51.8% of Georgia’s population is female — but still lag in wages, political representation and more.
“Representation is very important, so women are best off choosing to live in states where there are a lot of women legislators as they tend to be committed to women’s issues and intersectional diversity issues in general,” said Monica Taylor, a professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, and director of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Montclair State University. California is an excellent example with a high number of women representation.
According to financial website WalletHub, women represent nearly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers in the U.S. Their political representation also suffers; women make up 51% of the U.S. population but only 24% of the Senate and 27.6% of the House of Representatives. In addition, a recent study found that working women are experiencing the worst effects of the COVID-19 recession when it comes to burnout and are leaving the workforce at a higher rate than men.
Women fare better in some states than others, of course.
In order to identify 2022′s best and worst states for women, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key dimensions: women’s economic and social well-being, and women’s health care and safety.
It then examined those dimensions using 25 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100 point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for women.
So, what rank does Georgia’s overall score of 43.34 get? That would be 43rd, or the ninth worst state for women. The state dropped two spots from last year.
Among the 25 metrics. the Peach State’s rankings were anything but peachy.
- 19th – Unemployment rate for women
- 23rd – Share of women who voted in 2020 Presidential Election
- 30th – Women’s preventive health care
- 39th – Women’s life expectancy at birth
- 40th – Share of women in poverty
- 48th – Female uninsured rate
- 49th – High school graduation rate for women
According to WalletHub, eight of the bottom 10 states are in the South, the exceptions being Alaska and Idaho. In addition, blue states, with an average ranking of 16.15, are more women friendly than red states, which have an average ranking of 36.24.
Massachusetts finished in the top spot, with an overall score of 74.61. It was followed by Minnesota, New York, Hawaii and the District of Columbia, in that order.
You can read WalletHub’s full analysis at https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-women/10728.
