How are women in Missouri faring overall? A new report offers some insight

Last weekend’s Women’s March — by some estimates the largest demonstration in American history — was a loud shout against what one can only assume will be four years of steady and relentless normalization of Trump-like attitudes toward females. (See: Trump, yesterday, flanked by several other stern, old white men, signing an anti-abortion executive order.)

In Missouri, where the political tides have turned bright red, women’s progress is an area that deserves particular attention. A just-published study, commissioned by the Kansas City-based Women’s Foundation and conducted by the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri, aims to make sense of the status of women in the state. Using five lead indicators — employment and income; education and child care; health; social and economic status; and leadership and public engagement — the study examined women’s status across the state, comparing the results to a similar report in 2015.

You can read the report in its entirety here. We called up Emily Johnson, one of its authors, to discuss some of the takeaways.

How’d this study come about? 

This is the second study of its kind we’ve done; we did one last year, as well. The Women’s Foundation contracted with us and had a couple goals. One was to study and bring about awareness of women’s issues and the data behind those issues. And the other part was benchmarking and tracking and analyzing any changes in that data. And out of that research, the Women’s Foundation aims to put together policy solutions, and partnerships, and programs, in order to tackle some of these things that are issues in women’s lives. 

What’d you learn this year? 

Well, we continue to have a wage gap. Missouri women working full time earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. That’s close to, but below, the nationwide figure, which is 80 cents for every dollar. 

Also, following the election in November, the representation of women in the Missouri legislature has decreased. They were previously at 25 percent last year, and now they’re down to 22 percent. Women are 51 percent of the population of Missouri. 

Were there any areas of progress for women? 

There’s been a decrease in the number of women in Missouri with no health insurance — or, in other words, more women in Missouri have health insurance. Of course, given the political climate [Republicans’ intention to repeal Obamacare], there is concern that that number won’t be maintained. 

Was there a detectable rural/urban divide in the data? 

In some cases. Thirty-eight percent of Missouri counties don’t have an accredited childcare provider, and almost all of those are in rural areas. Missouri doesn’t require providers to attain accreditation, so a family trying to make decisions about what center to send their kids to won’t have a measure of quality or any other information related to figuring out the best place to send their child. 

Did anything here surprise you? 

Not really. It’s not a huge change from what we saw last year. Maybe the legislature. There’s always a push to get women more involved on boards and commissions and run for office so it was surprising piece to see that that number has gone down. 

Read the report here. And if you’re a woman thinking about running for office in the area, the Women’s Foundation might want to hear from you.