The State of Women in America: A 50-State Analysis of How Women Are Faring Across the Nation
Women made up almost half of the workforce last year, and yet were paid only between 65 cents to 85 cents for every dollar men make. That wage gap varies considerably among states. For instance women in Wyoming and Louisiana make around 65 cents for every dollar men make - while women in Vermont and Maryland make 85 cents .
Women face a number of challenges. Among them, health and income disparity. A recent study by the Center for American Progress (CAP) “The State of Women in America: A 50-State Analysis of How Women Are Faring Across the Nation,” addressed the challenges women face in the United States by measuring; their economic security, prominence in leadership roles and the current status of women’s health issues.
“Despite how important women are to our national economy and to their families, women are struggling to achieve economic security for themselves and their families and to balance the competing demands for their time,” the CAP notes in its report. This is certainly the case in the 10 worst states for women. Among these, only Oklahoma and Arkansas were awarded scores better than a “C” for economic security by the CAP. And in all but two of the states, the poverty rate for women and girls falls into the bottom half of all states. Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, all among the bottom five, each had one of the country’s five highest poverty rates for women and girls.
Many of these states were listed among the nation’s worst for female representation in Congress and only 5 of those states had any female representation in the state legislatures. These states also were less likely to have women in leadership roles than in the rest of the country. In most of these states, women were less likely than their male peers to hold a private sector management position. In two of the worst states — South Dakota and Utah — fewer than one in three management jobs were awarded to a woman.
Read the full report;
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2013/09/25/74836/the-state-of-women-in-america/
