New study ranks Alabama 5th worst state for women

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With women’s issues on the forefront of nearly every major news source in America today, and March being Women’s History Month, personal finance site WalletHub released a new study on Monday, detailing the Best and Worst States for Women in 2018.

Turns out, Alabama is the 5th worst in the nation when it comes to ranking the most women-friendly states.

The state came in 47th place in the nation overall, followed only by Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, and in last place, Louisiana.

WalletHub’s study compared all fifty states and the District of Columbia across 23 key indicators including; unemployment rate for women, share of women-owned businesses, High School graduation rate for women, and women’s life expectancy at birth.

Woman-friendliness of Alabama (1= best, 25= avg.):

  • 29th: Median earnings for female workers (adjusted for cost of living)
  • 42nd: Unemployment rate for women
  • 46th: Share of women in poverty
  • 26th: Share of women-owned businesses
  • 47th: High school graduation rate for women
  • 41st: Share of women who voted in 2016 presidential election
  • 32nd: Female uninsured rate
  • 50th: Women’s life expectancy at birth
  • 31st: Quality of women’s hospitals
  • 24th: Women’s preventive health care

Perhaps one of the reasons for these rankings is the supreme lack of women’s representation in the Alabama Legislature. Although our governor is a female, currently only 15 percent of Alabama legislators are women.

“It’s sad that we are 52 percent of the population, but we hold so few state legislative seats,” Birmingham-Democrat Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, told AL.com. Se is one of the four females occupying a seat in Alabama’s 35 member Senate.

With a bevy of women running for state office, if there was ever a year for things to change for women in Alabama, it’s 2018

According to Steve Flowers, the 2018 election year might just be the year of the woman in Alabama politics.

“Currently, Kay Ivey is the favorite in the governor’s race. Twinkle is the favorite in the Lt. Governor’s race. Alice Martin or Troy King is favored in the Attorney General’s race. If you made me bet right now, I would bet that Alabama would at least have a governor and Lt. Governor that are women,” opined Flowers.

Here’s a look at how Alabama compares to the rest of the country:

Source: WalletHub