Maine Celebrated for Excellence in Women’s Rights

Women's Rights in America

It was an exceptional showing for the state of Maine in a recent women's rights report.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, published its annual report of the states with the best and worst records for women's rights. The Pine Tree State was listed as the 4th best state. Now that's a ranking to be proud of.

Maine came in with a score 67.95 out of 100. The scoring is based on three major categories: workplace environment, education & health, and political empowerment. Those categories were broken down into 17 subcategories, with all of them being compared by gender. The three primary categories were then weighted and combined, with the best score being a 100. You can read about WalletHub's methodology and see all of the metrics here.

Women's Rights in Maine

Maine scored a respectable 23rd in education and health. However, the state did slightly better in workplace environment with an 18 ranking. Where Maine truly shined was with political empowerment, as it came in as the number one state in the category. That score helped push Maine to its overall ranking of 4th.

The political empowerment ranking is no surprise. This state has a tremendous legacy with women in politics, like Margaret Chase Smith, Olympia Snow, Janet Mills, and Susan Collins, just to name a few.

The Best States for Women's Rights

Number one on the list was Hawaii. The islands obliterated the competition, with all three of its rankings finishing in the top five. It was followed by California and Minnesota.

New England had two other states join Maine in the top 10, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island finishing 8th and 9th, respectively.

As for the worst? Well, that award went to Utah, with a score 23.04. That includes a dead-last ranking for education and healthcare and workplace environment. Plus, a 49th ranking in political empowerment. That's quite an impressive feat for the Beehive State.

But back to the good news. Great job, people of Maine! It's nice to see that equality and care are still important factors for creating a wonderful society.