WAYNESBURG - Greene County women tend to be sicker and more impoverished than the state average, and a group of activists met Wednesday to discuss ways to change the situation.
"What can be done to challenge and change the status quo?" Bettie Stammerjohn of Community Foundation of Greene County asked about 30 participants in the Road 2 Equity Tour at Greene County Education Center in Franklin Township.
Community Foundation sponsored the event along with the Women and Girls Foundation and Chatham University.
"This gives us time to come together to see where we are and where we are going," Stammerjohn said.
Women in Greene County are not faring very well in many areas such as health and economic status, according to a study conducted by Sara Grove, a visiting professor at Chatham University. Grove presented the results of her report, Status of Women in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The professor used data from the U.S. Census and other sources to compile the report, which focuses on the Pittsburgh area, including Greene County.
Greene County received a failing grade in the report's health category, as it pertains to end-of-life issues, because of the high number of women who die of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung cancer.
Local women also are not doing well in employment and economic autonomy categories, due to women's low participation in the work force and their low earning potential.
Greene County has the lowest percentage of working women in the Pittsburgh region, at 43.1 percent, compared to 47 percent statewide.
Women also earn less than men because women tend not to negotiate and they are more likely to leave the work force to tend to family issues, Grove said. Nationally, women earn 76 cents compared to every dollar earned by a man. In Pennsylvania, the ratio is 72 cents for every dollar and in Greene, the gap is even wider at 66 cents for every dollar.
However, Greene County is performing at the state average in health as it pertains to pregnancy care, since the county's rates of prenatal care and teen pregnancy is about the same as the state rates.
Grove found another bright spot for Greene County in political representation, where Greene has the highest grade of any of the 11 counties in the Pittsburgh area. The county excelled because there is a female majority on the county commissioner board, with commissioners Pam Snyder and Judy Gardner, and because the state and region fare so poorly in this area, according to Grove.
Pennsylvania ranks 47th in women's political representation and participation, and women only make up about 22 percent of county commissions in the region.
"The region has one of the worst records of female representation in government," Grove said. "Probably the only region that I would rank below us is small rural counties in Mississippi."
Local experts in politics, economic development, health care and education led discussions on how to improve women's status in those areas. Representatives from several philanthropic organizations also discussed how they can help the situation.