The Status of Women in the States project ranks and grades Maine across several areas of women’s lives. While Maine performs better in some areas, no matter the rank, there are still barriers and inequities that prevent women from succeeding and thriving. Across all indices, Maine ranks toward the top of states in the country. Maines’s performance is the strongest on the Political Participation and Reproductive Rights indices. Maines’s performance is weakest on the Employment and Earnings and the Health and Well-Being indices.
Explore the Data
As state policies and programs have changed over the years, so has the status of women in Maine. Since 1996, Maine has made progress in some areas, while lagging in others.
Articles and Publications
Data in Danger: The Disappearing Infrastructure of Maternal Health Research
This brief is the sixth and final in IWPR’s series Birthing While Black: The Urgent Fight for Maternal Health Reform. It reviews the historical and current mechanisms for collecting and disseminating maternal health data, describes the flaws and complexities that have emerged in those [...]
Latinas Paid Just 54 Cents on the Dollar in 2024, and Pay Equity Is More than 150 Years Away
October 8, 2025, marks the 10th anniversary of Latina Equal Pay Day—a campaign dedicated to recognizing the hard work, resilience, and economic contributions of Latinas across the United States. For the past decade, this initiative has brought national attention to the persistent wage gap [...]
Threats to College Affordability: Impacts of the OBBB on Women and Families
In July 2025, President Trump signed the Republican-led H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) into law. The new law is a sweeping tax and spending package that forgoes trillions in federal revenues to award tax cuts to the wealthy while stripping essential [...]
