2021’s Best & Worst States for Women – WalletHub Study

March is the month for women. International Women’s Day is March 8th, All Women’s Equal Pay Day is the 24th and March is Women’s History Month. Unfortunately, women are still fighting for some rights such as workplace promotions. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2019 report, for every 100 men promoted to management, only 72 women were promoted.

With March being Women’s History Month and women experiencing 55% of the net job losses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2021’s Best & Worst States for Women.

To identify the most women-friendly states, they compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 26 key metrics. The data set ranges from median earnings for female workers to women’s preventive health care to the female homicide rate.

Best vs. Worst

• The District of Columbia has the highest median earnings for female workers (adjusted for cost of living), $35,574, which is 1.5 times higher than in California, the lowest at $23,049.
• The District of Columbia has the highest share of women who voted in the 2016 presidential election, 77.20 percent, which is 1.6 times higher than in Hawaii, the lowest at 49.30 percent.
• New Hampshire has the lowest share of women living in poverty, 8.30 percent, which is 2.7 times lower than in Mississippi, the highest at 22.30 percent.
• Alaska has the highest share of women-owned businesses, 22.87 percent, which is 1.6 times higher than in South Dakota, the lowest at 14.04 percent.
• Massachusetts has the lowest female uninsured rate, 2.10 percent, which is 7.9 times lower than in Texas, the highest at 16.50 percent.

WalletHub Q & A

What factors, financial or otherwise, should women consider when choosing a city to live in?

“Of course, the most important issue is about opportunity—different states have hubs that focus on different fields—Massachusetts and California, e.g., technology. New York, Finance; Massachusetts, education,” said Deborah M. Kolb, PhD, Simmons University.

“If she has children or is considering having children, she should consider whether the state has a paid and job-guaranteed parental leave program for at least a couple of months,” said Elaine McCrate, University of Vermont. “She should consider the level of development of the childcare system. Children have a huge effect on women's ability to hold good jobs, and it is harder when there is little public support.’

“If through the responsibility of supporting children she and her family are low-income, they should also consider refundable state-level earned income tax credits which augment low wages. If she is low-income, she should also consider the level of any state-specific minimum wage. Minimum wages not only force up sub-minimum-wages; they also tend to raise wages slightly above the minimum.”

Are states converging or diverging in issues of importance to women including equal pay, reproductive rights, etc.?

"Coming out of the last election, we are seeing several state and national partners heeding the example set by Stacey Abrams—to stay in the states and work together in the “off years” to maintain and deepen voter and community engagement,” said Andrea Johnson and Jenalyn Sotto, National Women’s Law Center. ”This is critically important to offset the efforts by conservatives to undermine progressive gains and attack our communities through insidious legislation like increasingly restrictive voter suppression bills, bills attacking transgender students, and hundreds of anti-abortion bills.”

“Because of this community organizing, we are also seeing some positive legislative trends in the states. More and more states, from Connecticut to Indiana to South Carolina, are working on legislation this session that would require employers to be more transparent with job applicants about the salary range for positions. Legislators are recognizing that the wage gap will likely widen unless we take urgent action on such equal pay measures because gender and racial wage gaps have left women with a little financial cushion to weather this crisis. As a result, as women who have lost their jobs or have been forced to quit to care for children or family members seek to reenter the workforce, they will likely be forced to accept a lower-paying job because they lack the savings to hold out for a higher paying one. “

“Reproductive rights, justice, and equality are under siege in so many states, a commitment to assuring them would be a top priority in my “ideal” state,” said Susan Bordo, University of Kentucky. “But we need to think holistically about that commitment. Restricting abortion has become “the” issue for “pro-life” legislatures. But for many of them, the “pro” ends with the moment of birth. After that, forget any commitment to “life.” The right and access to abortion is essential. But it is also essential to understand that true reproductive choice is more than the right to terminate a pregnancy. In women’s lives (and the lives of their children) reproductive issues, economic issues, racial justice, and childcare issues do not belong to separate boxes but are intertwined and interdependent. We cannot have economic equality of opportunity unless women have control over their reproductive lives. And control over one reproductive life is not just about access to abortion; it is also about access to maternal care and childcare—about the ability to HAVE and raise healthy children as well as not to have them, without sacrificing the ability to earn a decent living or pursue a career. And it is undeniable, also, that both good maternal care and available childcare have been skewed by racist attitudes, laws, and practices. So systemic racism must be tackled as part of the struggle for reproductive justice. It is this kind of holistic (or “intersectional”) understanding that I look for.”

According to a recent study, working women are experiencing the worst effects of the COVID-19 recession. What can states do to ease the economic burden of COVID-19 on working women?

“Paid family leave help to organize childcare and schooling, tax credits for companies who rehire women, send money to parents,” Deborah M. Kolb, PhD, Simmons University. “

• Immediately prioritize vaccinating teachers at all levels, from early childhood to K-12 and college-level educators.
• Support infrastructure investment to provide all communities with robust Broadband access.
• Provide grants for schools to invest in technology (tablets, laptops) to loan to families that cannot afford them on their own.
• Increase the minimum wage so that single mothers working in low-paying, frontline roles can better support their families (and may not need to work multiple jobs to do so).

I am sure there is a lot more, said Sara Laschever, Carnegie Mellon Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women; Author: ‘Women Don’t Ask’ – Speaker & Workshop Facilitator: Negotiation Skills & Leadership for Women – Executive Coach. “Imagine that states with more diverse (as opposed to racially segregated) workforces also benefit women in important ways. Besides, much of what would help needs to happen at the federal level.”

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-women/10728

Courtesy: WalletHub