Women’s status low in Idaho

BOISE – More of Idaho’s women work than most other states’ women, but they’re not getting good jobs or good pay – and Idaho ranks dead last in the percentage of women working in managerial or professional jobs.

The first comprehensive report on the status of women in Idaho gave the state D’s for women’s political participation and social and economic autonomy, F’s for employment and earnings and for reproductive rights, and one B-minus for measures of health and well-being.

By contrast, Washington scored B’s in all five categories.

“Nothing proves the power of public policy more than the gaping differences between states,” said Heidi Hartmann, an economist and president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a Washington, D.C., group that produced the report in cooperation with a wide array of organizations and universities.

“Women’s status improves, for example, when you step across the state line from Idaho to Washington or Oregon,” Hartmann said.

The research group has been producing national and state-specific reports on the status of women since 1996, but this year was the first time it produced a comprehensive report about Idaho.

“As the report indicates, we have challenges to face,” said Lisa McClain, a Boise State University professor and director of BSU’s gender studies program. “This is not just a women’s issue, this is an Idaho issue.”

Idaho women fared poorly on nearly every measure examined in the report. Some of the worst results came in the economic and employment data. Idaho ranked 19th among the states for the percentage of women who hold jobs; 62 percent of Idaho women were in the labor force in 2002. But it ranked last – 51st among the 50 states and the District of Columbia – for the percentage of women in managerial or professional occupations, at just 24.6 percent.

Idaho also ranked 42nd among the states for its women’s median annual earnings, $25,600 in 2002, and 40th among states for its ratio of women’s earnings to men’s. Idaho women make 72.5 cents for every dollar the state’s men earn for full-time, year-round work.

Boise economist John Church noted that while university enrollments in Idaho tend to be relatively even between men and women, Idaho ranks low for the number of women with four-year college degrees. He said well-educated Idaho women likely are leaving the state to find appropriate jobs elsewhere.

“We are not providing the opportunity in the state of Idaho,” Church said. “I honestly think that the women that do have those degrees are finding those jobs somewhere else, they’re migrating out of the state.”

Idaho’s above-average female participation in the work force “may not necessarily be good news,” Church said. Instead, it may show that low-paid parents need two family incomes to get by. “A high participation rate may mean that the family is very, very stressed in terms of its earning ability,” he said.

Judy Cross, a clinical nurse specialist, said, “I see way too many women going home after having a baby, and having to go back to work after one, two, three or four weeks.”

Because of a lack of health coverage, paid leave and financial resources, Cross said, “They don’t have any choice.”

Idaho scored some points for having a state Women’s Commission, as do 41 states. However, when the commission’s budget came up in the state Legislature’s joint budget committee this year, several lawmakers said they saw no point in having such a commission.

Three committee members voted against funding the commission, including Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries. Fellow committee member Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, explained later, “Women control more things now than men do. … What do they need help for? They’re no longer the subjected group.”

Idaho lost points in the report for having only one woman among its statewide elected officials, state Superintendent of Schools Marilyn Howard, and none among its congressional delegation.

The last Idaho woman to serve in Congress, former GOP Rep. Helen Chenoweth, declared in a speech to state lawmakers in 1996 that there are no longer any women’s issues that Congress needs to address. “Those battles were fought a long time ago. That’s behind us,” Chenoweth said then.

Idaho ranked 39th among the states for its women’s political participation, from registering and voting to running for office and being elected.

“We need to do better,” said Maria Gonzales Mabbutt, director of Idaho Latino Vote. “When women are in office and have an opportunity to be making these decisions and laws and policies, it’s going to provide better representation for all in the state.”

Throughout the report, in nearly every category, women of color fared more poorly than white women.

Idaho’s sole bright spot in the report, the B-minus for health and well-being, came because Idaho women are less likely to die of heart disease, lung cancer or breast cancer than women in other states, and have lower rates of diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. However, Idaho women had higher rates of mental illness and suicide.

Overall, Idaho ranked 15th among the states on health issues, 39th for political participation, 48th for employment and earnings, 40th for social and economic autonomy, and 47th for reproductive rights, including access to abortion, contraception, sex education and infertility services.

Julie Kane, managing attorney for the Nez Perce Tribe, said one bright spot in the report for her was that Native American women in Idaho fared better than Native American women nationwide on such measures as earnings and education. However, other minority women fared worse.

“I think we have a long ways to go in Idaho,” Kane said. “We’re going to all be collectively working toward improving those scores.”

The report recommends recruiting more female candidates for office, more enforcement of equal opportunity and employment discrimination laws in the state, a higher minimum wage, paid parental leave policies, a state earned income tax credit and more investment in education and training.

“Though the findings are discouraging, we will continue to work to … advance policies to improve the women’s status in our state,” said Kathy Sewell, executive director of the Idaho Women’s Network.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research has posted the data from its report, including both national and state-by-state figures, on the Internet, via a link to “The Status of Women in the States 2004” at its Web site, www.iwpr.org.