Wallethub survey sees Kansas as low in equality ranking

The personal finance website Wallethub has released its 2019’s Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality.

“Kansas ranks 41st in terms of women’s equality, narrowly missing the bottom 10 here,” said analyst Jill Gonzalez. “It really comes down to things like education and health and political empowerment.”

Wallethub judged the states on 17 criteria.

“It has to do with the gap in terms of pay between female and male, also the female and male executive disparities,” said Gonzalez. “It includes changes in unemployment rates for women and men and things like how much political representation women have versus men.”

Kansas was particularly weak in the education and health ranking at 43rd overall.

“Kansas could really use some work in terms of the disparity in advanced educational attainment,” said Gonzalez. “That looks at the share of the population age 25 and up with an advanced degree, right now that’s a lot more men than women. We are also looking at a very high disparity in doctor’s visit affordability. Many more men are able to afford going to the doctor.”

Nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers across the country are female, according to the National Women’s Law Center.