The best US cities for women’s opportunity

It‘s better in Sacramento.
It‘s better in Sacramento.
Image: J. Smith/Wikicommons
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Gender inequality at work and in society has a huge impact on the US economy, according to the a new report from McKinsey. Addressing the imbalances in female participation in the workforce and in the types of work held by men and women could add as much as $4.3 trillion to the national output by 2025.

Some regions have more work to do than others. McKinsey ranked the 50 largest US metro areas—home to 56% percent of America’s female population—by their opportunities for women. Factors used to calculate a “city parity score” included the number of women in managerial positions, the number of women in technical jobs,  the rate of teen pregnancies, the ratio with college degrees, and incidents of rape (as a proxy for violence against women).

Some measures play a disproportionate role in calculating the final score: High marks in one metric, the ratio of female to male mayors, helped Sacramento and Baltimore reach the top.