Sobering data emphasizes state of gender inequality

A WalletHub study released last week on the living standards for women was a jarring reminder that we still have some work to do in Alabama, and nationwide, in the area of gender equality.

The study used data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Center for Educational Statistics to rank how women are currently faring throughout the U.S.

Overall, Alabama ranked 49th, just ahead of two other Southern states ? Louisiana 50th and Mississippi 51st.

Individual category rankings showed Alabama ranked:

23rd in women's preventive health care.

26th for the number of women-owned businesses.

29th for cost-of-living adjustments for women.

43rd in unemployment rate for women.

47th in share of women in poverty.

49th in women's life expectancy at birth, and quality of women's hospitals.

The study's findings help emphasize why women throughout the U.S. have banded together in recent weeks to march in protest to draw attention to one or more of the inequalities in status, power and prestige that still exist between men and women.

Progress has been made to narrow the gaps of gender inequality.

Throughout much of the 20th century, the average woman earned about 60 percent of what the average man earned. That began to change in the late 1970s, as women's relative earnings averaged about 80 percent of what men earned. Bureau of Labor statistics from 2010 indicate this historic rise plateaued in 2005.

Correspondingly, the number of women in the U.S. labor force also climbed during the 1970s and 1980s, reaching 60 percent in 2000. But by 2010, this figure had declined to 46.7 percent.

In 2010, there were approximately 65 million women in the labor force, but more than half of them (53 percent) were concentrated in three industries: 1) education and health services, 2) trade, transportation and utilities, and 3) local government.

And here's the kicker, the Government Accountability Office in a recent report revealed that in 2010 women constituted 59 percent of the low-wage workforce. Also, according to the GAO report, single woman households had the lowest total annual income of all households, averaging about $27,000.

Those last two statistics are at the heart of many of the problems women in Alabama face.

They help explain the state's terrible ranking in the number of women living in poverty, and why the unemployment rate is so high for women.

Lynne Rieff, director of the Center for Women's Studies at the University of North Alabama, said the WalletHub rankings suggest a bleak outlook for Alabama if things remain the same.

"Nobody's making this stuff up, contrary to what politicians might say," said Rieff. "Alabama has always been behind, and it's getting harder to catch up."