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
Native American Women Face the Highest Gender Wage Gap, Earning Barely Half of What White Men Make
This year, November 18 marks Native Women’s Equal Pay Day. In 2023, at the median, all employed Native American women, whether they worked full-time, part-time, full-year, or part-year, earned 53.6 cents per dollar compared to White men, and Native American women working full-time year- [...]
Threats to Women’s Economic Livelihoods: Impacts of the OBBB on Women and Families
This policy brief focuses on the One Big Beautiful Bill's (OBBB) impacts on women’s equitable work and wages, specifically on the issues outlined in IWPR’s Equal Pay, Minimum Wage, Better Workplaces, and Retirement and Social Security policy briefs. As millions of women experience a [...]
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 [...]
