See Which Hudson Valley City Is Ranked In Top 10 Best For Women In US

YONKERS, NY — A new study finds that Yonkers is one of the best cities in the U.S. for women, according to a just released study.

The personal-finance website WalletHub released its 2023’s Best & Worst Cities for Women study after news that the women's labor force participation rate reached 57.7 percent in August, the highest since February 2020, and that only 22 out of 250 metro areas in the U.S. report women under 30 earning the same amount as or more than their male counterparts.

The study's authors said Yonkers has bucked a nationwide trend in the wake of the pandemic.

"COVID has had a large negative effect for women who work outside the home," Professor Diane F. Halpern, Dean of Social Sciences Emerita, Minerva University, said. "Schools were moved to on-line and in the home. Not surprisingly, since women do the bulk of caring work (e.g., child care, care for an elderly or disabled relative), many had to stop their paid employment. Data show that when women 'stop out' of work with the intent to return later, women pay a high premium in terms of reduced pay when they return to work."

Women only earn around 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Since the gender pay gap tends to widen with age, WalletHub says that putting down roots in a city with better earnings potential can set a woman up for more financial success in the future. Some areas of the country are better positioned to handle women’s health and safety concerns as well, such as access to abortion and other women’s health services.

In order to come up with the list of the most women-friendly cities, WalletHub compared 182 cities across 15 key metrics, ranging from the median earnings for female workers to the quality of women’s hospitals to suicide rates for women.

Yonkers came in at No. 9 nationwide on the list. A closer look at the data showed that the city was ranked at No. 1 for women's healthcare and safety, No. 3 for women's life expectancy at birth, and No. 79 for women's economic and social well-being.

The best cities for women in the U.S. are:

1. Columbia, MD

2. South Burlington, VT

3. Irvine, CA

4. Fremont, CA

5. Santa Clarita, CA

6. Seattle, WA

7. Gilbert, AZ

8. Overland Park, KS

9. Yonkers, NY

10. Pearl City, HI

The worst cities for women in the U.S. were determined to be:

173. New Orleans, LA

174. Mobile, AL

175. Laredo, TX

176. Charleston, WV

177. Augusta, GA

178. Shreveport, LA

179. Huntington, WV

180. Brownsville, TX

181. Gulfport, MS

182. Jackson, MS

Halpern noted that a city that is a good place for women to live and work is a good place for everyone.

"A genuine commitment to creating efficient, clean and safe public transportation is critical in many cities like mine," she said. "Safe and affordable housing is important... for both women and men."

The full list of 182 cities ranked and WalletHub's methodology used to calculate rankings can be viewed here.