Foundation Report: 400K AZ Women in Poverty
The Arizona Foundation for Women released a report today outlining how women fare in comparison to men, both in Arizona and nationally. The report, the 2016 Status of Women in Arizona Research report, spotlights several issues affecting women – including healthcare, poverty and professional development.
Since the last report was released in 2010, the percentage of women living in poverty has decreased and the number of women holding managerial and professional women has improved, but Arizona still has the ninth highest number of women incarcerated.
Additional findings show that 22 percent of women report having no personal healthcare provider, and that 400,000 women are living in poverty. More positive findings show that domestic violence is declining and that Arizona ranks 9th highest in the nation for health insurance coverage for women ages 19 to 64.
Arizona Foundation for Women plans to bring awareness to the issues. The foundation’s work also includes grant-making to local nonprofits that work to create positive changes in safety, health and economic empowerment.
“Making the community aware of women’s position and their roles is not only vital but an important priority for the overall well-being of women, children and the entire community,” said Arizona Foundation for Women CEO Mesha Davis. “When women have the resources and support to succeed, this leads to a thriving society. This report was created to help us showcase the areas where we need to improve as a society to create lasting change in our communities.”
The report includes findings on white women and white men, however increased data broken down by ethnicity shows even greater disparities.
The research for the report was conducted by Arizona State University’s Institute for Public Policy with support from Bill Hart, Senior Policy Analyst and Keiran Vitek, MSW, Policy Analyst.
