Massachusetts is known as a good state for women, with high salaries, low unemployment, access to childcare, and workplace equity and pay transparency laws in place. But what does data show about the actual lived experience of women and girls in the Commonwealth? The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and the Women’s Foundation of Massachusetts set out to find out. On March 4, 2026, they celebrated the launch of their inaugural report on the Status of Women & Girls in Massachusetts.
This comprehensive report is the first of its kind and fills a critical information gap on the wellbeing of women and girls in Massachusetts, with a particular focus on economic empowerment. It zeroes in on three core indicators of women’s and girls’ wellbeing, opportunity, and agency: women’s earnings and labor force participation; education pathways and outcomes; and the health of girls and women.
“Massachusetts is a great place to live, according to many indicators,” said WCW Senior Research Scientist Sari Pekkala Kerr, Ph.D., who led the research along with WCW Interim Executive Director and Senior Research Scientist Georgia Hall, Ph.D. “But the benefits are not enjoyed universally. We’re dealing with a lot of structural and long-term inequality when it comes to gender.”
Basic economic security is out of reach for many due to factors like the gender wage gap and the high cost of living, which hit single mothers and elderly women particularly hard. When it comes to education, Massachusetts girls have higher levels of achievement than boys, but receive unequal rewards. Though girls graduate high school and enroll in college at higher rates, they start their careers earning less and carrying more debt. And despite high levels of health insurance coverage and strong overall rankings for women’s quality of life, top-ranked health care is not everyone’s reality. Women face barriers to care and high levels of maternal mortality, and girls face high teen pregnancy rates in Gateway Cities and alarming rates of mental distress.
At an event at Wellesley College co-hosted by WCW and the Women’s Foundation of Massachusetts, Hall and Kerr gave an overview of some of these key findings, followed by a dynamic panel discussion with Lisa Guyon, executive director of WE CAN; Natalie Martinez, CEO of Girls Inc. of Boston and Lynn; and Patti Satterthwaite, president of the Foundation. Guyon and Martinez spoke about how their nonprofit organizations see the data play out on the ground and the solutions they find to be effective. All agreed that investment in women and girls is a sound economic strategy.
“Our mantra at WCW is, ‘A world that is good for women is good for everyone,’ and that’s as true here in Massachusetts as anywhere else,” said Hall. “A rising economic tide for women lifts all boats.”
Read the executive summary and the full report.
