Women’s Foundation of Arkansas leader sees economic study as baseline for future policy discussions

A new study commissioned by the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas will hopefully serve as a catalyst for policy discussions to improve on conditions for females in the Arkansas economy.

Anna Beth Gorman, executive director for the foundation, said the granular detail of the data in her group’s new report could allow policymakers to utilize best practices and target solutions to accelerate improvements for women businesses, income, and education.

“We’re concerned with women’s economic security, but we needed to know what we didn’t know,” Gorman said of the benchmark study. “For too long, we’ve relied on outside sources to tell us about the status of women in Arkansas.”

The study — “Economic Indicators for Women in Arkansas: State, Region and County” — was compiled and analyzed by the Arkansas Economic Development Institute analysis of two nationwide surveys, the American Community Survey and the 2012 Survey of Business Owners. Some key findings include:

• While the percentage of women in business and management occupations in the state is marginally lower than the percentage nationally (38.2% vs. 40.8%), the percentage of women in business and management in Arkansas’ Central Region (42.1%) is higher than the national average.
• The percent of businesses owned by women in Arkansas (33.5%) is lower than the national rate of 36.3%. There is little regional variation in women’s business ownership, but much county-level variation.
• The highest percentages of women’s business ownership are found in the eastern part of the state, with 36.6% of businesses in the Southeast Region owned by women and 34.3% the Northeast Region. Of the 16 counties with the highest percentage of women-owned businesses, 12 are in eastern Arkansas.
• The earnings ratio in Arkansas, a comparison of median income for full-time, full-year employed men and women, is quite close to the national figure, at 77.8% and 79.6%, respectively. There is little variation in the gender earnings ratio for all women and all men by region.

The study also analyzed data related to poverty and education.

“When you look at the biggest takeaways, unfortunately it’s not a positive outlook for the status of women and we knew that going in,” Gorman said.

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas leader said the study intentionally did not outline potential policy solutions for the findings. She wants to work across party, regional, ethnic and income lines for a variety of changes that might lift women’s fortunes from their existing status.

“We didn’t make recommendations in this report. We truly want this to be a resource. We want other stakeholders to use this. I want legislators to use this, I want state agencies to use this, I want nonprofits to use this data in their work,” Gorman said.

She said another finding she plans to pursue is to look for the “positive deviant” in the data. In regions of the state where conditions are below average, Gorman wants to find the success stories and see what has made those women exceptions to the rule.

“That woman in that area who has been successful despite this… what’s the secret sauce and can we replicate that across Arkansas or across the region where it’s needed?” she said.

You can watch Gorman’s full interview in the video below.