Hawaii ninth-best U.S. state for women, study finds
BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARDADVERTISER.COM
Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center celebrated Hinamatsuri, also called Girl’s Day or Doll’s Day in Japan, with a special Hina Doll origami lesson by Ashley Nishihara and Lester Lau of Hawaii Origami Club on Sunday. Ashley Nishihara, left, distributes items to decorate the dolls as Jaisa Cummings and her daughter, Gracie, 4, assemble origami paper.
Despite a poor rating for median earnings and voter turnout in 2016, Hawaii’s highly rated health care helped earn the state ninth place in WalletHub’s ranking of best states for women.
Personal finance website WalletHub released the study today, comparing the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 24 key indicators of living standards for women. The data set compares median earnings for female workers as well as the quality of women’s preventive health care and the female homicide rate.
Hawaii was No. 9, behind Colorado (No. 8) and Maine (No. 7). Minnesota earned the No. 1 spot, and Massachusetts the No. 2 spot.
When adjusted for cost of living, Hawaii ranked No. 49 in lowest median earnings for female workers. Yet, Hawaii tied for first place with several other states, with the lowest unemployment rate for women, and was in fifth place for the lowest percentage of women in poverty. Hawaii was also No. 6 in the share of women-owned businesses.
Hawaii also came in at the bottom for the lowest percentage of women who voted in the 2016 presidential election.
Helping to bring Hawaii higher up in the rankings, however, were the state’s No. 1 ranking for women’s life expectancy at birth, women’s preventive health care (No. 3) and female uninsured rate (No. 4).
