Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being

In 1878, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would give women the right to vote. 42 years later, in 1920, the states ratified the 19th Amendment and women finally were authorized (“franchised”) to vote.

While the 19th Amendment did signal the beginning of gains for women in education and the labor force, it has not yet, 91 years later, translated into wage and income equity. However, there have been gains: for every two men who received a college degree in 2010, three women achieved the same goal.

An in-depth report on the issue, titled Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, has just been published by a coalition of federal agencies working under the coordination of the Department of Commerce. The report, for the first time in U.S. history, pulls baseline information together from across the Federal statistical agencies.