Utah Ranked Worst State for Women???
Based on recent Census Bureau, USA Today published a listing of the ten worst states for women, and our very own state ended up in the first spot. This is why-
> Gender wage gap: 70 cents per dollar (4th worst)
> Poverty rate, women: 13.6% (13th lowest)
> Pct. in state legislature: 16.3% (6th lowest)
> Infant mortality rate: 5.0 per 1,000 births (2nd lowest)
> Poverty rate, women: 13.6% (13th lowest)
> Pct. in state legislature: 16.3% (6th lowest)
> Infant mortality rate: 5.0 per 1,000 births (2nd lowest)
Perhaps we don't notice these discrepancies because we live here and this is just life to us.
I would be curious though, (forgive me for being defensive of our wonderful state) if the results would be the same if other factors were considered? For instance, I don't see any suicide or depression rates, and while I'm not saying women here can't be depressed, I am saying that there are important other factors in the "worst state for women" that should probably be included. Perhaps domestic abuse or rape percentages, education levels, etc.
That being said-to the girls in the class-let's make the "% in state legislature" statistic a little higher, sometimes I definitely feel a bit under-represented!
Some of this is based on the low percentage of women in Utah holding management and upper level jobs. Utah might be the worst for this because of the culture, with many women being stay-at-home moms. This ideology that women don't work, or work from home, probably makes it more difficult for women that do seek higher paying jobs to get them. I agree with Frankie that this should have been based on more than just gender wage gap and the factors listed above.
ReplyDeleteEmma, you're totally right. They really should take cultural (especially religious...) differences into account when ranking states like this. And Frankie, I agree that this ranking would be much more informative with the inclusion of education levels and abuse percentages. I would be interested to know how our state compares.
ReplyDeleteEven if you just took into account the amount of married women vs single women, I think that would change things immensely.
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