August 23, 2016
Even though Hillary Clinton was recently in the area to become the first woman to be named a major party's presidential nominee, a recent study shows that Pennsylvania and New Jersey still have work to do to close the gender gap.
On Tuesday, WalletHub published a list of the best and worst states for women's equality, ranking New Jersey and Pennsylvania as the third- and fourth-worst states.
All 50 states were judged on three key factors: workplace environment, education and political empowerment.
Analysis has shown that gender inequality in the workplace is evident across the nation. Women “are only 25 percent of executive and senior level officials and managers, hold only 19 percent of board seats, and are only 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs,” according to the Center for American Progress.
However, the rankings found that large disparities in pay, percentage of employees in executive positions, work hours and unemployment rates for women in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were particularly poor.
Both states fared slightly better in the education category but were still ranked in the bottom half of the list. WalletHub compared the percentage of residents with college degrees, graduation rates and scores in math and reading.
Earlier this week, Pennsylvania community colleges were ranked as the worst in the nation.
Lastly, the lack of women in government is often cited as a reason for the two previous issues. Pennsylvania and New Jersey have a dismal record of electing women to office.
Both states are among the 23 states that have yet to elect a woman to the U.S. Senate. Pennsylvania could be removed from that list as Democrat Katie McGinty is challenging Republican Pat Toomey in this year's election.
Pennsylvania is also one of 23 states to have never elected a woman as governor.
Only Utah and Georgia were deemed worse states for women's equality.
Hawaii earned top honors.
