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The Status of Women in Wisconsin Counties: A Research Blueprint

The WI Women’s Council has developed a new Wisconsin Research Blueprint to make it easier to track the status of women in Wisconsin at the county-level and compare the results directly to the findings in the statewide Status of Women in Wisconsin report. Based on the Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s community toolkit, this Wisconsin-specific Blueprint provides step-by-step directions to collect the information needed to develop a report on the status of women in any Wisconsin county.

The Blueprint consists of 33 questions across five issue areas. Each question is paired with specific instructions about where and how to find the answers and a link to the corresponding data tables and findings in the statewide status report. The result is a clear, user-friendly guide to collecting the information necessary to create county- or regionally-specific profiles of area women compared to each other by racial and ethnic group, compared to women statewide and nationally, and compared to men.

The 2002 and 2004 Status of Women in Wisconsin reports collected in one place, for the first time, basic statistics about the social, economic and physical health of Wisconsin women. These reports have become the framework for benchmarking women’s progress and encouraging policy changes to remove barriers and advance the status of women in Wisconsin.

This county-focused Wisconsin Research Blueprint is a great new resource for sharpening our focus on the status of local area women and establishing benchmarks to compare neighboring counties and paint a clearer picture of comparative barriers and concerns for women across our state. Better data on the status of women in local and regional areas will turn up the volume on conversations about strengths and challenges and give policy makers and other advocates, service providers, and the public the information they need to identify, address and target the key issues facing area women and their families.

Please share this information with women in your networks and visit the Wisconsin Women’s Council.

The Status of Women in Wisconsin Counties: A Research Blueprint