Here’s How Sexist Illinois Is

ILLINOIS — Illinois falls in the middle of the pack among the most and least sexist states in the United States, according to a study by the University of Chicago. The study says that “higher prevailing sexism” in the state where a woman is born and where she lives lowers wages, labor force participation, and the age a woman gets married and has a child.

The study measured sexism in different states by using data from the General Social Survey, which measures people’s beliefs about women’s capacities, roles and place in society. The GSS is a nationally representative survey that has asked respondents these questions for several years, the study notes.

According to the study, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama and Utah are the most sexist states in the country. Wyoming, Colorado, Hawaii, Connecticut and Vermont were among the least sexist states in the country. A map compiled by The Washington Post shows just where each state falls on the scale generated by the study, and Illinois falls at right about the midway point between the most and least sexist states.

“Sexism is highest in the Southeast and least extreme in New England and the West,” the study’s authors write.

The study concluded that sexism where a woman was born affects the woman even if she is living in a different state as an adult because of the influence of internalized norms.

The age a woman gets married or has a child are affected by the prevailing sexist beliefs of other women in the area, the study suggests. How much she earns and other workplace issues, on the other hand, “seem to operate chiefly through the mechanism of market discrimination by sexist men,” the study says.

Photo by Kathleen Culliton/Patch