The District of Columbia ranks first, Maryland second, and Virginia ninth in a new evaluation of how well state economies treat women, released today by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), an independent think tank located in Washington, DC. Among the economic indicators IWPR calculated in The Best and Worst State Economies for Women, its new report released today, are women’s wages, the gender wage gap, labor force participation, representation in managerial and professional occupations, business ownership, and poverty. The District of Columbia was included in the study along with the 50 states.

“The District of Columbia’s success in this area will come as a surprise to many,” says Dr. Heidi Hartmann, IWPR president, economist, and lead author of the study. “While some of the District’s problems, such as its high poverty rate, are well-known, few people realize DC is also a magnet for well-educated women of all races and ethnic origins who find professional and management jobs in the government, education, or private sector. The District also leads the nation in the share of businesses that are women-owned, at 33.2 percent.”  Over the past few years, women have made great gains in education, managerial and professional jobs, and business ownership across the nation, according to IWPR, but some areas have clearly done better than others. Despite women’s quick-paced progress in gaining credentials, fair compensation continues to elude them everywhere. Even in the District of Columbia, which ranks first for both the level of women’s median wages ($42,400 for full-time, year-round workers) and the gender pay ratio (85.5 percent), women have lost ground relative to men in the past five years. Men’s median wages increased 14 percent, while women’s increased only 5 percent, for full-time year-round workers there.

Nevertheless, DC is the only jurisdiction where the level of women’s median earnings is higher than the national median for men’s earnings. For men 24 states have median earnings above the national median. Nationwide, women who work full-time, year-round have median annual earnings of $31,800, only 77.0 percent of men’s annual earnings of $41,300.  Maryland and Virginia continued to narrow their gender wage gaps, with gains exceeding the national average since 1999. They were among only 20 states that made progress in reducing the size of the gap. Maryland ranks 2^nd for women’s median earnings at $39,300 for full-time year-round work, and 5th for its wage ratio at 82.2 percent.

Virginia ranks 10th for women’s earnings, at $34,000 annually, but it ranks 19th, just below the top third, in its ratio of women’s to men’s earnings, at 76.2 percent.  The proportion of women in managerial and professional occupations is on the rise nationwide, at 35.5 percent, up from 33.2 percent at the time of IWPR’s last data release. On this indicator, the District of Columbia (52.5 percent), Maryland (43.1 percent), and Virginia (40.3 percent) really stand out: They are in first, second, and third place.  “Women benefit from the strong public sector in these three jurisdictions as well as from strong higher education and health sectors,” says Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Director of Poverty, Education, and Social Justice Programs at IWPR. “We have to recognize, though, that many women are being left behind and not enjoying the same degree of progress. The District of Columbia has one of the highest poverty rates for women nationwide, at 17.8 percent. And people shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking all the women doing well are white and all the women doing poorly are women of color, a stereotype many people hold. Black women in DC and Maryland have among the highest median earnings of Black women anywhere in the US.”

Anne Mosle, president of Washington Area Women’s Foundation commented on the report saying “The research in our Portrait Project is consistent with that of IWPR; women as a whole have high median earnings in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Yet Washington, D.C., ranks 49th in the percentage of women living above the poverty line. Clearly in our region we have both the promise and potential to further improve economic independence for all women.” The economic policy environments of the states were also examined in the study to assess women’s economic progress. This area includes four factors highly influenced by public policy and with great impact on women’s economic independence: percentage of women with a four-year college degree or more, women’s poverty rate, health insurance coverage, and business ownership.

Every state in the nation saw an increase in women’s educational attainment between 2000 and 2005. In Virginia, the increase in the proportion of women with at least a Bachelor’s degree was 2.8 percentage points; it was 5.0 percentage points in Maryland and 8.5 percentage points in the District, compared with the national average of 3.7 percentage points.  “The leaps and bounds women have taken in terms of higher education are something we can point to as a sign of true progress,” according to Dr. DeWeever. “I hope policy makers in this region will keep this in mind as they set tuition fees at public universities.”  “This region is something of a mecca for women business owners,” says Dr. Hartmann. “Ranking 1st, 2nd, and 5th , DC, Maryland, and Virginia lead the nation in providing role models of successful businesswomen.”

On the negative side, a great many women live in poverty and lack health insurance in the US. Among the three jurisdictions, Virginia has the lowest poverty rate at 10.0 percent, ranking 9th in the nation; Maryland ranks 12th, with a women’s poverty rate of 10.1 percent, and DC is nearly the worst in the nation, ranking 49th with 17.8 percent of women living in poverty. And while DC and Virginia have made progress in reducing women’s poverty in the past ten years, the share of women in poverty has actually increased in the last ten years in Maryland. 

The report also finds great disparities across the states in women’s health insurance coverage, an indicator that frequently goes hand-in-hand with poverty. On this indicator women in DC fare the best of the three local jurisdictions, likely because many of its women qualify for Medicaid: 86.9 percent of non-elderly women in the District have health insurance compared with 84.2 percent in Virginia and 83.5 percent in Maryland. The national average is 81.4 percent. The District ranks 10th, Virginia 22nd, and Maryland 25th in the nation on this measure.  “There’s a real imbalance in women’s economic progress,” said IWPR Director of Employment and Work/Life Policy, Dr. Vicky Lovell. “The great strides in education and occupation that many women have achieved are coupled with economic insecurity from falling real earnings and inadequate health insurance. Unfortunately, many women are falling behind.”