Women’s rights in the U.S. have made leaps and bounds since the passage of the 19th Amendment. Yet many women still struggle to crack the proverbial glass ceiling.
Across the country, women’s equality in pay and job opportunities varies and America is losing ground globally, according to the personal finance website WalletHub, which in their latest study “2016’s Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality” ranked the states for gender equality.
The study found Alabama was neither among the best, nor the worst states in gender equality, ranking number 35.
WalletHub analysts compared three key metrics in determining each state’s rank: workplace environment, education and political empowerment.
In the first metric, Alabama ranked 41st, for its high disparity of employees in executive positions by gender (with the fourth-worst score in this category), gap in number of minimum-wage workers and gap in number of entrepreneurs by gender.
The Yellowhammer State ranked fourth in education — a high point of the findings.
And when it comes to political empowerment, Alabama has room for improvement, coming in at 37th.
Apart from unequal representation in executive leadership, salary inequity also has been central to the gender-gap debate. “Few experts dispute the existence of an earnings gap between women and men, but accurately measuring the disparity remains a challenge,” WalletHub writes. “The fact remains, however, that about two-thirds of minimum-wage workers across the country are female, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Unfortunately, women still have too few voices in government to help them achieve full social and economic equality in the near future.”
Here’s a look at how Alabama compares to the rest of the country:
