Maryland is ranked second best in the nation for women’s equality according to a report released by personal finance company WalletHub.
Hawaii came in first, and Alaska ranked third. Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah ranked lowest, at 48th, 49th, and 50th respectively.
Worldwide, the United States’ 2025 ranking on women’s equality remains near where it was the previous year, at just 42nd out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. The previous year it ranked 43rd.
“Ensuring women’s equality requires more than simply giving men and women the same fundamental rights,” said Chris Lupo, an analyst for WalletHub. “States also need to work to make sure that women receive equal treatment to men when it comes to financial opportunities, education, and politics. The best states for women’s equality have drastically reduced the disparities between men and women on multiple fronts.”
The U.S. reflects worldwide inequality when it comes to opportunities in the workplace and beyond. U.S. women are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions despite making up more than half of the population. They hold only one-third of the legislative seats and 35 percent of S&P 500 board positions.
WalletHub compared all 50 states across 17 key indicators of gender equality to determine which ones afford women the greatest level of equality. The factors ranged from gap between female and male executives to differences in unemployment rates between men and women.
Maryland earned a total score of 73.36, with a Workplace Environment Rank of 3rd in the nation, an Education & Health Rank of 2nd, and a Political Empowerment Rank of 12th. Those were just three of the 17 factors considered in Maryland’s second place status among the 50 states.
Maryland has the smallest income gap in the nation between women and men. All states have a gap, but in Maryland, women’s median weekly earnings are only 1.4% lower than men’s. The state also has the smallest gap in average work hours between the genders.
In the political realm, Maryland sends equal shares of men and women to the U.S. Senate, and to its state elected executives. There is still inequality, however, when sending equal numbers to the state legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Finally, women are not much worse off than men when it comes to unemployment. In Maryland, women have a mere 0.7 percent worse unemployment rate than men, and there is only around a 2.2 percent gap in the share of men and women who have advanced college degrees. This indicates that the state has equity in both education and the job market.
Christy Garrison Harrison is an associate professor of History and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College. She discusses the cycles of inequality and the larger impact and reach of those cycles.
“The disparities experienced by women are not isolated problems,” Harrison said. “Lower wages lead to reduced access to insurance. Limited insurance restricts access to preventive care and specialists. Delayed diagnosis leads to poorer health outcomes. Poor health can reduce workforce participation and earnings, creating further economic instability. This cycle is particularly severe in underserved communities where economic inequality, provider shortages, and limited health infrastructure reinforce one another.”
