Report: Idaho second-worst in women's rights

By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

Idaho is the second-worst state for women's rights, according to a report released Tuesday by a personal finance website.

In individual categories that comprised the overall rankings compiled by Washington, D.C.-based WalletHub, Idaho was 49th in Education and Health, 41st in Political Empowerment and 38th in Workforce Environment.

The only state below Idaho's ranking was Utah. The best states for women's rights, in order, were New York, Minnesota, Maine, Nevada and Hawaii.

"Despite their advances toward social equality, women are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions," the report states.

Call for action

Bonnie Douglas, spokesperson for the League of Women Voters of Kootenai County, said she’s not surprised Idaho has a dismal ranking in gender equity.

Douglas pointed to a different report called "Status of Women in the States" released earlier this year by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a scientific research organization, that ranked Idaho 49th in employment and earnings for women.

"Contributing factors include a low minimum wage, reduced access to health care and lack of affordable child care," Douglas said. "Pay equity would improve the status of women and enhance access to higher education for women."

Further, that report ranked Idaho 49th in terms of the percentage of women (36.7) in professional or managerial occupations.

Douglas said both reports spell out the need for people to vote to make a difference.

"As voters, we all have an equal say in determining our future," she said. "To improve women's voter participation in Idaho, election officials can reduce lines at the polls, have enough printed ballots at all the polling places and advocate to expand vote by mail."

Douglas said Idaho's poor rankings reaffirm the need for the League's mission.

"The League of Women Voters of Kootenai County will be a force for empowering voters and creating a more perfect democracy in Idaho," she said.

Study details

To determine where women receive the most equal treatment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 16 key indicators of gender equality, including earnings, business executives, unemployment rates, those who have earned higher than a bachelor's degree and those elected to state and federal lawmaking positions.

For all metrics, the differences between the number of women and men were compared on the premise that women make up more than 50 percent of the population. Each of the three categories held the same amount of weight when determining the overall scores.

Unemployment data used in the report is from 2017 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All political empowerment data is from 2018 and came from the Center for American Women and Politics. Income data is from 2016 and came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report's release comes just prior to Women's Equality Day, which will be celebrated Sunday to commemorate the 1920 adoption of the 19th Amendment. That amendment prohibits government from denying the right to vote to citizens based on gender.

How to improve

WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez said one of the areas where Idaho fared worst in the report was disparity in average number of work hours, in which the state ranked 46th. It also has the second-highest gender gap in the country when it comes to advanced educational attainment.

Gonzalez said Idaho should consider ways to climb the equity ladder.

"The state could improve its ranking by supporting women in education by creating special grants," Gonzalez said. "Another thing communities could do is encourage more women to get involved in politics and lawmaking."

Gonzalez said the study aims to raise awareness for women still struggling because of unequal treatment.

"Communities can have a better view of the gender gaps that exist in their respective states and try to minimize and even close these gaps," she said. "We wanted to shed light on situations such as the gap between female and male executives and disparities in unemployment rates."

How the U.S. rates

On a global scale, the United States ranked 49th out of 144 countries in gender equality in 2017, according to the World Economic Forum. In 2016, the U.S. ranked 45th.

According to the American Association of University Women, women make up 25 percent of the legislators and less than 29 percent of business executives. Nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers across the country are female, according to the National Women's Law Center.