MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The video above first aired Feb. 23, 2022.
Women have come a long way when it comes to getting the same treatment as their male counterparts, but certain markers show there is still a ways to go. Females make up two-thirds of American workers who toil for minimum wage, and although they account for 51% of the population, women hold only a quarter of the seats in the U.S. House and Senate.
To identify where women can find the best lives and opportunities offered, personal finance website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key dimensions: Women’s Economic & Social Well-Being, and Women’s Health Care & Safety.
Those areas were examined using 25 key metrics, with collected data ranging from median earnings for female workers and women’s preventive health care to the female homicide rate.
Based on high rankings in a number of categories, WalletHub deemed Minnesota the second-best state for women. Here is how we stacked up.
Woman-Friendliness of Minnesota (1=Best, 25=Avg.)
- 2nd – Median Earnings for Female Workers (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
- 18th – Unemployment Rate for Women
- 4th – Share of Women in Poverty
- 4th – High School Graduation Rate for Women
- 2nd – Share of Women Who Voted in 2020 Presidential Election
- 6th – Female Uninsured Rate
- 5th – Women’s Life Expectancy at Birth
- 11th – Quality of Women’s Hospitals
- 23rd – Women’s Preventive Health Care
Massachusetts is the only state that ranked higher than Minnesota, with New York, Hawaii and Washington D.C. rounding out the top five. Oklahoma was ranked the worst state for women, with Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina and Louisiana rounding out the bottom five.
Among states in the Midwest, Iowa ranked eighth-best for women, followed by Wisconsin at 13th, North Dakota at 22nd and South Dakota at 25th.
In terms of general trends, WalletHub says blue states rank higher on the women-friendly scale.
For more on how states finished and how the research was conducted, visit the WalletHub website.
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