Does Your U.S. State Treat Women Fairly? Minnesota Ranks Top

Women in Minnesota enjoy the best quality of life of all women in the United States, a new study finds.

Research by WalletHub of all 50 U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia, analysed over a dozen factors in order to judge which was the best and which was the worst state for quality of living.

Following Minnesota for quality of life, WalletHub found that the next best states for women to live are Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, and New Hampshire. States which fared badly, sitting at the bottom of the list, were South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas.

Marking this month’s Women’s History Month, the study inspected how much women earned, what the health care standards were like, and how states fared for levels of employment and poverty.

Vermont reportedly ranked top for health care, while the best for economic social and wellbeing was Maryland.

For women wanting to earn the best money, WalletHub said the District of Columbia came out top, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, the lowest unemployment rate for women was found in North Dakota, and Nevada had the most jobless women.

[Image Source: WalletHub]

If education is a priority, it’s worth women taking a look at New Hampshire, where there’s the lowest high school dropout rate in the country. The teachers there must be doing something right, or at least something better than Arizona, which was found to have the highest dropout rate.

For those women planning on sticking around for as long as possible, Hawaii ranked best for long life. The birthplace of President Obama enjoys the highest life expectancy for women at birth, with Mississippi registering the lowest.

Data was used from a number of sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Educational Statistics.

In introducing the report, author Richie Bernardo provided the following comments.

“In recent years, women have made even more remarkable strides in areas where men once dominated. In fact, both the percentages of women in public-sector leadership positions and private-sector board memberships increased in 2014. And far more women — especially those from racial minority groups — than men are enrolled in college these days.

“But much work remains to be done in the name of social progress. In some states, women continue to fall behind their male counterparts in various measures. For instance, women represent nearly two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers in the U.S. And in the 22 states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, women comprise the majority of poor uninsured adults.”

It’s a mixed bag of findings, which you might expect from a country with the size and diversity of America. But it’s also worth remembering the bigger picture and struggles of women globally.

While the WalletHub report may or may not be without its own political agendas, its study into women’s quality of life throughout the U.S. offers compelling data on which areas give women the best chance of success in life.

[Image – Alamy]