Poverty & Opportunity

Women’s status in the area of poverty and opportunity in the United States has improved on two indicators since the publication of IWPR’s 2004 Status of Women in the States report and declined on two others. The share of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased 6.9 percentage points during this time period, from 22.8 to 29.7 percent, and the share of women-owned businesses increased from 26.0 to 28.8 percent. The percent of women living above poverty, however, declined from 87.9 in 2002 to 85.4 in 2013 (IWPR 2004; U.S. Department of Commerce 2014a). The percent of women with health insurance in 2013 (81.5) was also slightly lower than in 2002 (82.3 percent), but the 2013 data do not reflect shifts in coverage following the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010.

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Best	Worst
1. Maryland	51. Mississippi
2. District of Columbia	50. Louisiana
3. Massachusetts	49. Kentucky
4. Connecticut	47. West Virginia
5. Colorado	47. Arkansas

Access to Health Insurance

Health insurance gives women access to critical health services. In the United States, 81.5 percent of nonelderly women (aged 18–64) have health insurance coverage, a slightly higher proportion than men of the same age range (77.1 percent; Figure 4.1). According to IWPR analysis of 2013 American Community Survey microdata, 59.6 percent of nonelderly women are insured through a union or employer, either their own or their spouse’s. Medicare covers 3.8 percent of nonelderly women, and Medicaid and other means-tested programs cover 15.6 percent. Approximately 9.5 percent of women have health insurance purchased directly from an insurance company.

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Education

Women in the United States have closed the gender gap in education over the past several decades, aided in part by the passage of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which prohibited discrimination in educational institutions (Rose 2015). While men outnumbered women among those receiving bachelor’s degrees throughout the 1970s, women surpassed men in 1981 and have received more bachelor’s degrees in every year since then. During the 2012–2013 academic year, women comprised 57 percent of the nation’s college students (Rose 2015).

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Women's Business Owner and Self-Employment

Like education, business ownership can bring women increased control over their working lives and create financial and social opportunities. Nationally, 28.8 percent of businesses are women-owned (IWPR 2015b); the large majority are owner-operated and have no other employees (88.3 percent), which is also true for men-owned businesses, although the share of men-owned firms with no other employees is lower (U.S. Department of Commerce 2010). Business ownership can encompass various arrangements, from owning a corporation, to consulting, to providing child care in one’s home.

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Women's Poverty and Economic Security

Women’s economic security is directly linked to their family income, which includes not only earnings from jobs and any other family members but also income from other sources, such as investments, retirement funds, Social Security, and government benefits. Many women in the United States enjoy comfortable family incomes, but others struggle to make ends meet. IWPR analysis of data from the Current Population Survey (U.S. Department of Commerce 2014a) indicates that 14.5 percent of women aged 18 and older in 2013 had family incomes that placed them below the federal poverty line, compared with 11.0 percent of men.

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View Additional Data by State

View additional tables with state-level data on the indicators discussed in the Poverty & Opportunity section. State-level data are available for women’s and men’s access to health insurance, educational attainment, self employment, poverty by race/ethnicity, and median income by household type. Much of the data is also disaggregated by race and ethnicity.

View the Additional Data by State

National Overview
	Women	Men
Percent with Health Insurance	81.5%	77.1%
Percent with a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher	29.7%	29.5%
Percent of Women or Men-Owned Businesses	28.8%	51.3%
Percent Above Poverty	84.5%	88.1%
^{Note: Percent with health insurance is for those aged 18-64; for percent with a bachelor’s degree or higher, aged 25 and older; for percent living above poverty, aged 18 and older.}
^{Source: Data on women- and men-owned businesses are from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2007 Survey of Business Owners accessed through American Fact Finder. All other data are based on IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).}

Percent with Health Insurance by Race and Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	86.8%	84.0%
Hispanic	64.0%	56.1%
Black	78.7%	70.4%
Asian/Pacific Islander	82.8%	80.4%
Native American	67.7%	59.1%
Other Race or Two or More Races	81.3%	76.5%
Total	81.5%	77.1%
Health Insurance by Source	Women	Men
Private	68.6%	66.7%
Through an Employer	59.6%	57.9%
Public	15.6%	13.9%
Medicaid	13.2%	9.6%
Purchased Directly	9.5%	9.1%
Medicare	3.8%	3.8%
Tricare	2.2%	2.8%
VA	0.5%	2.7%
Indian Health Services	0.5%	0.5%
^{Note: Aged 18 to 64. Racial groups are non-Hispanic. Hispanics may be of any race or two or more races. Not all types of health insurance coverage are listed. People may have more than one type of insurance.}
^{Source: IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).}

Percent with Less than a High School Diploma by Race/Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	7.9%	8.8%
Hispanic	33.9%	36.8%
Black	14.8%	17.6%
Asian/Pacific Islander	15.5%	11.9%
Native American	17.1%	19.5%
Other Race or Two or More Races	10.1%	11.4%
Total	12.8%	14.1%
Percent with High School Diploma by Race/Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	28.4%	28.5%
Hispanic	26.0%	28.2%
Black	28.3%	35.1%
Asian/Pacific Islander	16.5%	15.0%
Native American	29.5%	34.8%
Other Race or Two or More Races	21.5%	25.0%
Total	27.3%	28.5%
Percent with Some College or an Associate’s Degree by Race/Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	31.2%	29.1%
Hispanic	24.9%	22.2%
Black	35.4%	30.8%
Asian/Pacific Islander	19.7%	19.9%
Native American	37.9%	32.0%
Other Race or Two or More Races	35.8%	33.2%
Total	30.3%	27.9%
Percent with a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher by Race/Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	32.5%	33.6%
Hispanic	15.3%	12.8%
Black	21.6%	16.6%
Asian/Pacific Islander	48.4%	53.2%
Native American	15.5%	13.7%
Other Race or Two or More Races	32.6%	30.5%
Total	29.7%	29.5%
^{Notes: Aged 25 and older. Racial categories are non-Hispanic. Hispanics may be of any race or two or more races.}
^{Source: IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).}

	Women	Men
Percent of Women or Men-Owned Businesses	28.8%	51.3%
Percent of Workers Who Are Self-employed	7.0%	11.3%
^{Note: Data on self-employment are for those aged 16 and older.}
^{Source: Data on Business Ownership are from U.S. Census Bureau; 2007 Survey of Business Owners and 2007 Population Estimates. Data on self-employment are IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).}

Percent Living Below Poverty by Race and Ethnicity	Women	Men
White	11.7%	9.1%
Hispanic	24.0%	17.3%
Black	25.7%	20.4%
Asian/Pacific Islander	13.0%	12.2%
Native American	28.1%	24.4%
Other Race or Two or More Races	19.7%	15.3%
Total	15.5%	11.9%
Percent of Single Parents in Poverty	40.8%	22.8%
Percent in Poverty Without Health Insurance	35.4%	42.7%
^{Notes: Percent in poverty by race and ethnicity and percent of single parents in poverty, aged 18 and older. Percent in poverty without health insurance aged 18 to 64. Racial categories are non-Hispanic. Hispanics may be of any race or two or more races. Single parents include those with children under 18.}
^{Source: IWPR analysis of American Community Survey microdata (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Version 5.0).}

Poverty & Opportunity

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