ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 20, 1996 TAG: 9611200040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Women in several Northeastern states and the District of Columbia fare better than others in their income, political clout and health, a private research group said Tuesday.
States where women earn more money, are politically active and have more access to abortion scored the best under the rating system of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a liberal research group.
A handful of Southern states scored lowest when rated that way.
``If women want to know how they're doing, they have to know what they're doing at the state level'' because federal authority is increasingly being passed to the states, said institute director Heidi Hartmann.
Under the group's rating system, Maryland, Vermont and Connecticut, along with the District of Columbia, fared best. Washington state, Alaska, California and Oregon also scored high.
Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee were at the bottom of the rankings along with Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina.
* Political participation: Measured the percent of women registered to vote, their turnout, number of women in elected office and number of governmental bodies established to advance women's issues.
California, Kansas and Maine each have sent two women to the Senate at one time, but Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wisconsin have never sent a woman to Congress.
* Employment and earnings: Measured women's earnings, the gap between men's and women's earnings, number of women in managerial or professional jobs and number of women in the overall labor force.
In the District of Columbia, women earn 88 cents for every dollar a man earns, giving it the narrowest wage gap. By contrast, women in West Virginia earn 59 cents for each dollar a man earns. Virginia women earn 69 cents.
* Economic autonomy: Examined rates of college education, health insurance, business ownership and poverty. While 25 percent of Mississippi women live in poverty, less than 8 pe rcent of women do so in Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Mississippi's overall poverty rate, of course, is also higher.
*Abortion: Measured access to abortion, including parental notification and waiting period restrictions, the positions of the governor and the legislature and the number of counties with abortion providers. Hawaii, for example, provides public funding for abortions. Nebraska, by contrast, has relatively few abortion clinics.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB