We summarize the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security (GWIPS) 2020 indexing of the status of women by state, in the areas of Inclusion, Justice, and Security. We then compare this to the new imposition of laws limiting abortion in the states, after the Dobbs decision throwing out the previous federal Constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, which lasted five decades.
The topics rated under Inclusion, Justice and Security are shown in the following diagram from the report.
The Dobbs ruling will affect all four topics under Justice and Inclusion each, and Healthcare affordability under Security.
Here is a map of the index for each state, using colors of traffic signals: Green for good, Yellow for serious decisions, and Red for complete denial of rights of passage.
We note that New England does best, and Northern states and the West coast do good at a half or better. The ancient South does poorly to worse and worst.
Here is the current abortion laws status of the states from the Center for Reproductive Rights:
We note that the maps are similar, but the abortion restrictions are even more severe in more states than the overall 2020 pattern. Yellow in the above map signifies abortion is still protected, while Yellow in the index is a score below half.
Nationally, Democratic women hold about 20% of state legislature seats, and Republican women hold about 9%. The best states for women in the legislature is Nevada with 52%, and Colorado with 46%. The worst states are West Virginia with 13%, and Mississippi with 14%.
There is an almost unbelievable difference in evaluation of women’s equity needs between the political parties, with independent men closer to Republicans, and independent women closer to Democrats. In their polling, starting with do you think that there is full equality for women, Yes is only 12% for Dem women and 15% for Dem men, while Yes is 57% for Rep women and 67% for Rep men. It’s almost as if they are watching different news channels!
In do you think that access to abortion is important to women’s rights, very important has Yes at 72% for Dem men and 69% for Dem women, compared to 19% Rep women and 15% for Rep men. Independent men and women are at 40%. Adding in the somewhat important result gives Yes at: Dem men 94%, Dem women 88%, Rep women 36%, and Rep men 39%.
On the importance of working on women’s rights: very important has Dem women 74%, Dem men 63%, compared to Rep women at 27% and Rep men at 21%. Adding in the somewhat important answers: Dem women 95%, Dem men 92%, Rep women 70%, Rep men 61%. Keep in mind, that the survey and report was written before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
California in the 2020 Index was ranked 15th out of 51 including D.C. with a score of 0.564. It’s strength was access to reproductive health care, with only 3% of women not living in a county with an abortion provider, the second best nationally, behind only D.C. This was compared to the US access of only 62.0%, way back in pre-Dobbs of 2020.
Seven key legal protections for women was 71.4% for California compared to 39.9% for the US average in 2020. Maternal mortality in California was a low 17.6 score, compared to 29.7 as a US average, over the range of per capita deaths. One drawback, was a 33.3% in discriminatory attitudes compared to a US average of 28.4%.
California’s weakness was safety walking alone in a neighborhood at night, where California only had 40.7%, compared to the US average of 56.1%. Gun deaths, however, were a low 1.8, versus the US average of 3.3.
California’s rather average overall score is because: it’s full-time employment of women was 40.5% compared to the US average of 42.5%; working but poor was 5.1% compared to the US average of 5.6%; representation in state legislature was 31.7% compared to 29.5%; and college completion was 34.6% compared to the US 33.0%.
Almost half — 45% — of female state legislators in California are Hispanic, the highest share of any state.
