Connecticut Ranked as One of the Best States for Women
By Huijuan Jia
WASHINGTON, Nov.17, 2004-Connecticut is ranked as one of the best states in the country for women in terms of economic, social and health status and political participation, according to a study released Tuesday.
The report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research rates Vermont, Connecticut, Minnesota and Washington as the four states best for women. The worst states are Mississippi, South Carolina and Kentucky.
Connecticut has been ranked among the best states for women four times in a row since 1998 by the non-profit research organization’s biennial study, ” The Status of Women in the States .”
“The report tells us that we have come a long way-some of us more than others,” Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-3rd) said Tuesday in a news conference releasing the report. “I’m particularly proud to come from a state that gets high marks in the report and has been consistently getting high marks.”
In the category of women’s political participation and representation, Connecticut ranked high, with its governor and two of its five House members being women.
Connecticut also has three other women in elected state offices, including one African-American, state treasurer Denise Nappier. Only five statewide elected executive offices in the country are held by women of color. In state legislatures, Connecticut has 55 women, including four African-Americans and three Hispanic women, which makes the state third in the country in terms of women’s political participation.
According to the report, women hold less than 15 percent of the seats in Congress. The number of women of color in Congress decreased from a high of 21 in 2002 to 19 after the recent election. There are seven Hispanic women and 12 African American women in the next House. No women of color currently serve in the Senate. There is no Asian American woman or Native American woman in Congress, and no woman of color has ever served as governor of any state.
“At this rate, it will be nearly a century before women take an equal share of the seats in Congress,” said Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
But Rep. DeLauro said this is not about numbers, but about “agenda.” She said women’s under-representation in Congress has “stymied and stifled” issues that are in the best interests of women. She said a bill on equal pay for women she introduced in three consecutive Congresses couldn’t even get a hearing.
“I will guarantee you that if we could get a hearing and get it out of the committee process to the floor of the House, I dare anyone to vote against pay equity for women in this nation,” DeLauro said.
She called for more women being elected to Congress so that issues important to women would “get approached, get fixed, get dealt with and get action on.”
“An agenda for women is based on principle and goes to the heart of what women believe-that government must play a role in making opportunity real,” DeLauro said. “As we look toward the upcoming Congress, this report provides an opportunity to open a dialogue that might impact public policy for women in the coming months.”
Among its findings, the report also concluded that after decades of progress, women are still decades away from achieving full economic equality with men. American women are paid 76 cents for every dollar men earn, the report said. The wage gap is even wider for African-American, Hispanic and Asian women.
“Things are better in some places and worse in others, but wherever you go in America, women are short-changed, starting with their paychecks,” Hartmann said.
The report calculated that if the rate of change remains the same as it has been since 1989 it would take 50 years before women’s paychecks to equal men’s and it would take African-American women 75 years and Asian-American women 135 years.
The report found that one out of every eight American women lives in poverty. Nearly one out of four African-American women lives in poverty and one-fourth of all Native American women live in poverty.
“Life is getting worse, not better, for women near the bottom of the American economy,” Hartmann said.
There are signs of improvement, however. For example, the number of women governors jumped from one to nine from 1996 to 2004. The wage gap between women and men narrowed in every state. However, the progress in uneven, which is reflected in that the list of the best and the worst states for women hasn’t changed much.
Mississippi has been the worst state since 1998 and each of the other worst states this year has been there at least once before. “This lack of status change is very frustrating,” said Amy Caiazza, study director at the organization and one of the report’s editors. “Overall our report shows some progress, but we are very disappointed that more hasn’t happened.”
Caiazza called for better enforcement of equal opportunity and affirmative-action laws, the election of more women to public office and an increase in the federal minimum wage.
She blamed the slow improvement of women’s status partly on policymakers’ failure to give priority to women’s issues. She called for candidates and policymakers to recognize the issues and take actions to quicken improvement in women’s status.
“This will benefit not only women, their families, but communities, the states and the nation as a whole,” Caiazza said.
