The best and worst states for women in America

Photo from Washington Post

The Washington Post recently came out with the best and worst states for women in 11 maps and charts.

“Each state and the District of Columbia received grades on seven broad topics, derived from dozens of metrics and touching on virtually all aspects of the public and private lives of women, from employment and earnings to economic opportunity to violence and safety to reproductive rights to health to political participation.”

We love this study and think it’s an essential, eye-opening piece every woman should see, reflect on and understand.

“In the end, Minnesota rose to the top, along with a handful of states in New England and the West Coast. The states that scored lowest were in the South, with Mississippi and Alabama tying for the title of worst state for women.”

“The dozen best states were chosen because each appeared in the top 10 in at least one of the seven IWPR reports and none appeared below the midpoint of all states on any of the reports. The six ‘worst’ states were chosen because each qualified in the bottom 10 of at least one report and fell below the midpoint of all states in each report.”

Here are some bests and worsts of the study:

1. The best state for political participation: New Hampshire. The worst states for political participation: Texas, West Virginia, Utah and Arkansas.

2. The best states for women’s work-family balance: New York, California and Washington D.C.. The worst states for women’s work-family balance: Indiana, Montana and Utah.

3. The best states for reproductive rights: Oregon, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maryland and Connecticut. The worst states for reproductive rights: South Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas.

4. State with highest percent of women in counties with abortion access: Hawaii. State with lowest percent of women in counties with abortion access: Wyoming.

5. The best states for women to rise above poverty: Maryland and Massachusetts. The worst state for women to rise above poverty: Mississippi.

6. On health and well-being, women in Minnesota are best off and women in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are worst off.

7. The best state for employment and earnings: Maryland. The worst state for employment and earnings: West Virginia.

Think about which state you live in. Does the report’s data reflect your experience? Which issues from the study are most important to you? Why are there so few high scoring grades overall? What can be done to change that?