The Worst Place to Be a Woman
After reading Elizabeth Blackney's sobering post on real wars on women that occur in places like DR Congo, and seeing yesterday's report of Islamists poisoning the drinking water of Afghan schoolgirls, this post at Jezebel, which has been making the rounds among my Facebook crowd, seems farcical in comparison. Entitled "The Ten Scariest Places to Have Ladyparts in America," the piece offers a countdown of the most hostile cities and states in the U.S. toward women. As you might guess, the criteria used to determine which locales make for the worst places to be a woman include such considerations as whether parental consent before a minor can obtain an abortion is required, whether the state provides funding for Planned Parenthood, whether ultrasounds before abortions are performed, whether the state has laws that permit employers to opt out of covering the cost of contraception on religious or moral grounds, etc etc etc. To be fair, the author also considers rape statistics, which certainly should count in a definition of a hostile environment for women. But the list generally reads as a sanctimonious condemnation of the most pro-life cities and states. The list:
10. Kingsville, Texas
9. Memphis, Tennessee
8. Pocatello, Idaho
7. "The Breakfast Counties," Georgia (i.e. Coffee, Bacon, and Crisp Counties)
6. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
5. West Memphis, Arkansas
4. Cleveland, Ohio
3. Any hospital in Kansas
2. Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
1. The entire state of Mississippi.
If I were to compile such a list, I'd certainly consider rape statistics. But I'd also look at the murder rate of women, women's unemployment rates, the incidence of single motherhood, and the divorce rate. And I haven't yet done the research, but my guess is that a place like Detroit would earn top billing.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
This has no credibility. Neither Salt Lake City nor Provo, Utah made the list. No way should Pocatello beat out the cities of Utah.
Dec '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Diane,
You so providentially point out the difference between reality and ideology. The left has been driving women with ideology for many many years. How refreshing to hear the voice of reality asking the right questions.
Regards,
Jim
Jan '11
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
These cities are probably the least scary if you happen to be a person with ladyparts inside another person with ladyparts.
Nov '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
If you run the statistics and come up with a list, I'll post it to my facebook page. Although if you weight single motherhood (and perhaps rape statistics, I don't know), you may end up with a list that looks racist, so maybe it won't work to post it.
Apr '11
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
While significant numbers of independent women read this stuff and find it plausible, Republicans should be emphasizing, as you do, that the female unemployment level is a part of female quality of life. Anywhere in South Dakota would find it very difficult to make the top ten in a list that included that metric.
Dec '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Pocatello? Really? I went to college there, and while it has many less than endearing quaulties in my mind a lack of safety isn't one of them. In part the list is rediculous because anyone concerned with the same issues as the author can simply drive a couple hours and secure whatever services they want in an adjacent city/county/state.
If the author could spare themselves a moment of introspection, what town would be the scariest for you (or if it's a guy, your daughter) to walk home after a party when you had too much to drink? Had to trust a stranger for directions at night? Had to be picked up along the side of the interstate when stranded without cell service?
The list might be better described as the 10 worst places to make consensual mistake with someone you shouldn't be sleeping with in the first place.
Apr '11
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Murder and unemployment also result in racist looking stats. Divorce rates look depressingly like the list above (Oklahoma has the third worst, for instance). Massachusetts has a significantly lower divorce rate than anywhere else in the country. You wouldn't prove much, but at least you wouldn't look racist; Whites get divorced most, with blacks getting about 80% of the White figure, Hispanics a little better still, and Asians getting about 30%.
Hence the Coming Apart strategy of disaggregating for race. Murray only looks at whites, and you could make a list of the worst places to be a white woman, but probably the most effective list, which would take more work, is a "worst place to be a woman" list with separate stats by race.
Jul '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Diane, there is no place like Detroit. What was that old SNL bit?
Washington D.C. was named the murder capital of America. Detroit demands a recount.
Second, if we want to talk cities & unemployment, here are the top metro areas in the nation:
Twelve more CA metro areas (including LA) come in ahead of Detroit. Obviously, it doesn't break out the women's rate or account for those who have dropped out entirely.
Third, to assess such stuff usefully control for some variables. Are given locales bad for women because they're women, or just bad generally? I'd bet that you are right about Detroit. I'd also bet that it has more than an incidental relationship with the local prevalence of the religion of peace.
Finally, this is a subject for a book (maybe a broadside) not a post. I would love to read it.
Dec '11
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
I have met little girls whose parents were ethnically cleansed.
Jun '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Beasley:
If the author could spare themselves a moment of introspection, what town would be the scariest for you (or if it's a guy, your daughter) to walk home after a party when you had too much to drink? Had to trust a stranger for directions at night? Had to be picked up along the side of the interstate when stranded without cell service?
Excellent reality check. I've been in Pocatello several times. I can think of scores of cities that are far worse based on your criteria. I don't know the other cities, but I'd rather have my daughter lost in Kansas or Idaho than just about anywhere else.
May '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
This is a bit of a digression but, I've noticed that the term "ladyparts" has more and more come into common currency in the language. Is it just me, or do others find the term kind of well, odd, and vaguely vulgar?
What a strange people we have become - where opposition to the destruction of children in the womb is viewed as hostility to women.
Sep '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
The rape consideration actually makes this thing worse in a way, and adds to the sleaziness and dishonesty of the list. It of course would be an important consideration in a list that was actually about quality of life for women. Here it is meant to suggest moral equivalence, one of the left's favorite tools for debate and propaganda.
May '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
I lived in Kansas and I don't think their hospitals are dangerous by any measure.
Mar '12
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Am I the only one who's surprised not to see Colorado City or Hillsdale? They're FLDS dominated towns, where girls face a significant risk of being married off as a polygamous wife at ages as young as 12. I'd put my money on that being the worst place in America to be a woman.
Jun '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
Madcap
Am I the only one who's surprised not to see Colorado City or Hillsdale? They're FLDS dominated towns, where girls face a significant risk of being married off as a polygamous wife at ages as young as 12. I'd put my money on that being the worst place in America to be a woman. · 2 hours ago
Taking everything into account, they may not be the worst, but I'd put them in the top 10.
Nov '10
Re: The Worst Place to Be a Woman
So rape rates are, at best, a secondary consideration to the availability of abortion when it comes to being a woman. (Or at least to have lady parts. I suppose if you leave your lady parts elsewhere, you'll be fine.) Some of these are like they just picked a random small town in a state they don't like - only way I can see why they picked Kingsville out of all of Texas; I'm sure there's lots of small towns, especially in west Texas, that are more than an hour away from the nearest abortion clinic (and Kingsville is only an hour from Corpus if you drive real slow - I was in Alice for a while, and it didn't take us that long, and that's farther from Corpus than Kingsville).
But SLC apparently has the closest abortion clinic to Pocatello. Therefore it's OK. And Provo isn't three hours away from SLC. Oh, and apparently Pocatello is more Mormon than Utah, too.