The Status of Women Study

Rhode Island's women still far from equity, but progress in health, reproductive rights

“Status of Women in Rhode Island” report marks 1st anniversary of Women''s Fund of Rhode Island

“C's aren't good enough,” WFRI will tell sold-out audience of 450 women and their supporters at November 21 event

“Rhode Island illustrates both the advances and the limited progress achieved by women in the United States. While women in Rhode Island are seeing important changes in their lives and access to political, economic, and social rights, they do not enjoy equality with men and lack many of the legal guarantees that would allow them to achieve it,” reports a new study commissioned by the one-year-old Women's Fund of Rhode Island, and conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), based in Washington, D.C.

Rhode Island earned one B, three Cs, and a D in IWPR's “report card,” “The Status of Women in Rhode Island,” which will be issued today in the fourth round of a 10-year effort to study women in each state and the District of Columbia.
“Rhode Island is pretty much a C level performer when it comes to equity for women,” agree Simone P. Joyaux, founder and chair of the Women's Fund of Rhode Island, and Dr. Cynthia Garcia Coll, who chaired the study's advisory committee.

“But Cs aren't good enough,” Joyaux said. “A C means the 11th highest rate of female AIDS in the nation. A C means 20,000 hotline calls a year to the Rhode Island Coalition Against omestic Violence. A C means that a Rhode Island woman earns 71.5 cents to a man's dollar.”

Despite the middle-of-the-road grades, Rhode Island scored some highs and lows in different categories. The IWPR ranks in five general areas: political participation, employment and earnings, social and economic autonomy, reproductive rights, and health and well being.

Though Rhode Island rated a D, C+, C+, B, and a C respectively in those categories, the composite grades mask that Rhode Island scored best in the nation among women with health insurance and for having state-level commissions and political caucuses focused on women.

But Rhode Island also finished 40th (and last in New England) among women in elected office, 33rd in participation in the labor force, and 30th in the ratio of women's to men's earnings. In all those cases, those rankings compare the different states. As “Status of Women in Rhode Island” points out, “women have not achieved equality with men in any state, including those ranked relatively high on the indices. All women continue to face important obstacles to achieving economic, political, and social parity.

“For example, at the rate of progress achieved over the past ten years, women will not achieve wage parity for more than 60 years. If women's representation in Congress changes at the rate it did during the 1990s, it will take more than a century to achieve equality in political representation,” states “Status” editor Amy B. Caiazza, Ph.D.

Digging deeper into some of the statistics that led to the rankings, the IWPR, discovered that:
• Rhode Island women have among the worst mortality rates from heart disease, lung cancer, and breast cancer
• within New England, Rhode Island women have the second lowest rates of educational attainment and the second highest rate of poverty
• the incidence of rape is 21 percent higher than the national average
• Rhode Island women have the lowest level of death by suicide in the United States
• Rhode Island is one of the few states that require insurance policies to cover both contraceptives and infertility treatments.

“Status of Women in Rhode Island” generally credited the state for its welfare reform policies, with some notable exceptions, such as qualifying for unemployment insurance. And while Rhode Island women actually exceed men in voter registration and turnout, the very low percentage of women serving in elected office sank the overall grade for political participation to a D.

The Institute for Women's Policy Research is a non-partisan research organization founded 15 years ago by Dr. Heidi Hartmann, an economist and a 1994 MacArthur Fellow.

Women's Fund will use results for grantmaking WFRI Chairwoman Simone Joyaux said the Women's Fund commissioned the study primarily to provide benchmarks and dependable statistical information about women's lives in Rhode Island in every sphere. “Every thoughtful decision should begin with relevant, significant information, and this fulfills the first promise that we made to the state's women when we announced the Fund,” said Joyaux.

“And that's exactly how we will use it within the Women's Fund,” she continued. “For example, our second promise was to establish a grantmaking procedure that will get to the root causes of inequity for women, and support those organizations and projects that have the best ideas. Almost every page of this study provides both an understanding of the problems and a blueprint for action. I expect the Women's Fund will use this study as much as every other organization concerned with women and girls in the state.”

Dr. Garcia Coll's Advisory Committee also developed several recommendations for action that are included in the report. The Advisory Committee included: Toby Ayers, RI Commission on Women; Miriam C. Coleman; Deborah DeBare, RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Sandra Enos, RI College; Christine Ferguson; Juana Horton, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Miriam Inocencio, Planned Parenthood of RI; Linda Katz, the Poverty Institute; Carol C. Malysz, Center for Women and Enterprise; Jane Nugent, United Way; Teresa Paiva-Weed, Moore, Virgadamo & Lynch, Ltd.; Meghan Purvis, Brown University; Roberta Richman, Department of Corrections; Senator Elizabeth Roberts; Catherine Walsh, RI Kids Count; and Sally Zierler, Brown University.

Though the “Status of Women in Rhode Island” is being released today, November 19, to coincide with IWPR''s other national findings, the Women's Fund of Rhode Island will be formally presenting the report to an enthusiastic, sold-out audience Thursday, November 21, at the Providence Marriott on Orms Street, when it celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Women's Fund's inauguration last November. The Women's Fund was seeded with a $2.5 million challenge grant by The Rhode Island Foundation, which maintains it as a permanent endowment specifically targeted to issues affecting women and girls.

“The first year has been wonderful,” Joyaux said. “This report, the million dollars in wonderful ideas we've received as grant proposals, and the $160,000 Rhode Islanders have already contributed to the endowment have made this a worthy celebration indeed.”

Dr. Garcia Coll and Joyaux will describe the report and call for action at the dinner, as will Rhode Island Foundation President Ronald V. Gallo. Brown University President Ruth Simmons is the keynote speaker. The Foundation, Allied Group, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Citadel Communications, Mayer Creative, Narragansett Electric, the Providence Journal, State Street Global Advisors, and the Washington Trust Company are all sponsors of the event.