Three news conferences were held statewide Wednesday to report the findings of a study by the Tennessee Economic Council on Women on the status of women in Tennessee.
The message that women in the state are still lagging behind those in other states was delivered on the Capitol steps in Nashville, Memphis and in the East Tennessee Room at the Culp Center.
“We are honored to have the news conference here,” said Kristn Fry, director of news and information services for university relations.
“Today’s release . is an important and critical step in providing insight into women’s lives,” said Dr. Wilsie Bishop, dean of the College of Public and Allied Health and the presenter of the findings.
The report highlights the state’s poor record in addressing the wage gap, women’s poverty, violence against women and women’s health care. In each of the categories, Tennessee falls behind other states.
The problems are many. The average working female in Tennessee makes only 71 percent of the wage her male counterpart takes home, and only Mississippi has as few businesses owned by women.
Unlike a majority of states, Tennessee does not require domestic violence training for police officers. The state ranks 44th in the number of female four-year college graduates.
In overall rankings measuring women’s status in politics, economics, health, education and reproductive rights, Tennessee ranks 48th in the nation, in front of only Mississippi and Alabama.
To remedy this, the report suggests a higher minimum wage, action to close the wage gap, stronger enforcement of equal opportunity laws, and state legislation to protects workers’ rights to unionize.
It also “urges women’s groups to hold voter participation drives,” Bishop said.
Lee Brown, president of the Watauga League of Women Voters, seconded this, and added that her organization is looking for help to raise the status of the state through political action.
“We are very much in need of worker bees,” Brown said.
ETSU is not new to this sort of in-depth look at women. In 1989 and again 1994, the university conducted studies similar to this one, but on a smaller scale.
“Out of these studies have come some major policy changes,” Bishop said.
She added that the most significant development to emergeat ETSU was the creation of the Little Bucs day care facility, which serves as a day care for student mothers of young children. This is a step for women.
Another sign of strength that has ETSU is that of the nine academic dean positions, five of them are filled by women. These include Bishop; Martha Collins, education; Joellen Edwards, nursing; Rita Scher, libraries; and Linda Garceau, business.
All five women attended the press conference.

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