Ladies, we’ve got a lot of work to do. First, let’s start with the good news: women have made strides in leaps and bounds since the passage of the 19th amendment. However, according to recent studies, there’s still a lot of work to be done. I don’t take this lightly because I am a true believer in the power and strength that women possess. And I know we’ve still got a lot of fight left in us. Let’s take a look at the numbers so we know where we need to be.
Recently, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality. In order to determine the most gender-egalitarian states, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across 15 key metrics. The data set ranges from the gap between female and male executives to the disparity between women’s and men’s unemployment rates. Read on to see if your state made the list. Where do you think you rank?
Some of the facts stated in the article are jarring: “According to the Center for American Progress, women ‘are only 25 percent of executive and senior level officials and managers, hold only 19 percent of board seats, and are only 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.’ And though they constitute the majority of the financial-services and health-care labor forces, not a single woman in these fields helms her organization.”
The WalletHub article states that “about two-thirds of minimum-wage workers across the country are female, according to the National Women’s Law Center.” We need to tilt that scale.
The truth is in black and white.
States such as Hawaii, California, and Vermont ranked at the top of the list with the smallest pay disparity among men and women. Sadly, some states, such as Kentucky, Alabama, and Utah, still have a long way to go. I was surprised to learn that New York is among the states with the lowest number of executive positions held by women. Clearly, there’s still a lot of work to do on the subject of gender equality.
To read the full article and see the full list, visit WalletHub.
