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Here Are the Best, Worst States for Women

Minnesota comes out on top, Mississippi is at the bottom
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2021 10:00 AM CST
Here Are the Best, Worst States for Women
Minnesota is perched at the top of WalletHub's list.   (Getty Images/LightFieldStudios)

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

  1. Minnesota (No. 1 in "Women's Economic and Social Well-Being" category)
  2. Maine
  3. Vermont
  4. North Dakota
  5. Washington, DC
  6. Iowa
  7. Washington
  8. Massachusetts
  9. Wisconsin
  10. South Dakota

Worst States

  1. New Mexico
  2. West Virginia
  3. Nevada
  4. Texas
  5. South Carolina
  6. Oklahoma
  7. Louisiana
  8. Arkansas
  9. Alabama
  10. Mississippi

See where the other states fall on WalletHub's list. (How the states rank in terms of gender equality.)

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