Pay gaps, the minimum wage, the pandemic—all issues that affect women disproportionately, though there are some areas of the US that offer better opportunities for women than others. WalletHub tries to shake those locations out, looking at more than two dozen metrics in two main categories: women's economic and social well-being, which includes women's median earnings, unemployment rate, high school graduation rate, and share of women-owned companies; and women's health care and safety, which encompasses the share of women who are physically active (as well as those who are obese), quality of women's hospitals, preventive health care, and depression/suicide rates. Read on to see which states (and Washington, DC) make up the top and bottom 10:
Best States for Women
- Minnesota (No. 1 in "Women's Economic and Social Well-Being" category)
- Maine
- Vermont
- North Dakota
- Washington, DC
- Iowa
- Washington
- Massachusetts
- Wisconsin
- South Dakota
Worst States
- New Mexico
- West Virginia
- Nevada
- Texas
- South Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Louisiana
- Arkansas
- Alabama
- Mississippi
See where the other states fall on
WalletHub's list. (How the states rank in terms of
gender equality.)