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
Status of Women in the States: 2004
Women in the United States have achieved significant advances and are seeing important changes in their lives. Their access to political, economic, and social rights has improved greatly over the past 40 years. Nonetheless, they do not enjoy equality with men, and they lack [...]
The Price of School Readiness: A Tool for Estimating the Cost of Universal Preschool in the States
DOWNLOAD REPORT Families and communities throughout the United States are embracing early childhood education as an important and beneficial experience for children. Policymakers are beginning to view children’s access to early education as a public good, and are debating ideas such as universal [...]
Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Long-Term Earnings Gap
Although the wage gap, measured by conventional methods, has narrowed in the last several decades, with women who work full-time full-year now earning 77 percent of what men earn (compared with 59 cents on the male dollar 40 years ago), its sweeping effects are largely unacknowledged because its measurement is limited to a single year and restricted to only a portion of the workforce. When accumulated over many years for all men and women workers, the losses to women and their families due to the wage gap are large and can be devastating.
