Nevada's women are among the least likely to have a college education when compared to women in states across the nation, and their median annual earnings are lower than women in 30 other states, according to a report published by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR).
The report, titled "The Status of Women in Nevada," uses data from a variety of federal sources. It compares the educational, political, economic, and health conditions of Nevada women to those in states in the Rocky Mountain region and across the nation.
The report highlights the promising as well as the disappointing conditions for women in the state, according to Joanne Goodwin, director of UNLV's Women's Research Institute of Nevada.
IWPR's partners for this project include UNLV's Women's Research Institute of Nevada and the Center for Applied Research at UNR; representatives of both universities serve on the state advisory committee.
A few examples of the mixed results for Nevada's women include:
* In economic health, Nevada ranks first in the region and seventh in the nation for percentage of women living above poverty. Yet, the median annual income of year-round, full-time workers falls in the bottom third of the list of U.S. states. Similarly, Nevada is slightly above the national average for the number of women-owned firms; yet, it ranks at the bottom of the states in women holding professional or managerial positions (ranking second to last, ahead of only Idaho).
* In education, only 16.7 percent of women in Nevada completed college (four or more years). The national figure is 22.8 percent.
* In politics, Nevada ranks ninth among the states in the percentage of women holding elected office. Yet, that ranking has declined in the past five years, and women's voter registration and turnout rank extremely low, at 48 th and 49 th, respectively.
Nevada ranks 47 th in the percentage of women college graduates. This places Nevada ahead of only Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, and West Virginia. Even among other Rocky Mountain states, Nevada falls at the bottom of the list.
"As it is generally accepted that the level of education attained has a direct relationship to the level of income a woman earns, this finding has several important implications for the state," according to Goodwin.
"For example, it impacts a single mother's ability to support family, the rate of dependency among women on public or private assistance, and a married woman's contribution to family income. In terms of the state's economic development, supporting advanced levels of educational attainment is only positive," Goodwin says.
Nevada is one of five Rocky Mountain states studied in-depth by IWPR for the 2004 edition of Status of Women in the States, in addition to six other states. The report compares quality of life for women and includes a ranking system for state-by-state comparison. For instance, in 2004, Utah ranked No. 1 in the composite health and well-being index, while Nevada ranked No. 42. Conversely, Nevada ranked No. 7 in the percent of women living above poverty, while New Mexico was No. 50 on the list.
"Women experience lower than average rates of unemployment and poverty, but they also earn relatively low wages in Nevada's gaming and tourism-dependent economy," said Jill Winter, of the Center for Applied Research at the University of Nevada, Reno. Also, Nevada's service industry jobs often provide few childcare benefits.
The median annual income for full-time, year-round working women is $27,500; Nevada is ranked 31 st in this category. Fewer women in Nevada fall beneath the poverty line ($18,513 for a family of four in 2002) than in the region or most of the states in the country. Yet, 23 percent of single mothers with children fall into poverty and 17 percent of single women do. Hispanic women who support their children alone face a poverty rate of 30.7 percent. The wage ratio between women and men is in the top third of all the states, but a woman in Nevada still earns only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
In addition, the disparities are more pronounced by race and ethnicity: African-American and Asian-American women in the state earn only 63 cents for every dollar a white man earns; Native American women earn 62 cents, and Hispanic women only 50 cents.
"Women in Nevada work hard, but they continue to be shortchanged, starting with their paychecks," according to Heidi Hartmann, president and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. "It is time for policymakers to address the barriers to women becoming full and equal participants in the state's economy and government."
"The value of this report rests in the trends it suggests," said Goodwin, who is also an associate professor of history at UNLV. "It offers a set of measures that can be compared over time. The IWPR used the best national data available. The state needs to pursue some of these issues in greater depth."
Early next year, the Nevada Women's Fund will release an in-depth analysis of the status of women in the state. The project, directed by Winter, uses comparable sets of data for counties and cities across the state to provide a detailed picture to policymakers and advocates.
The Washington, D.C.-based IWPR is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit scientific research organization that works in affiliation with graduate programs in public policy and women's studies at the George Washington University. Founded in 1987 by economist Hartmann, it released the first Status of Women reports in 1996.
The mission of the Women's Research Institute of Nevada is to foster the social and economic development of Nevadans through the collection, preservation, and analysis of information on women in the state. The public dissemination of institute research, within Nevada and across the nation, facilitates faculty research and builds leadership skills.
The Nevada Women's Fund is dedicated to improving the lives of women and children in northern Nevada by raising funds and distributing those funds through direct scholarships and grants to programs serving women and children.
