The best markets for female executives

Second place belongs to Washington, reflecting the impressive education levels of its female residents. Forty-four percent of Washington's women have bachelor's degrees, and 19 percent hold advanced degrees. Both figures lead the nation.

America's two largest metros — New York City and Los Angeles — rank as the third- and fourth-best markets for women in business. One possible explanation, says Adams, is that the economic conditions in those sprawling areas give female executives extra inspiration to succeed.

"It's harder to be a one-income family in places such as New York or Los Angeles," she says. "They're so expensive that to live there, you probably have to have every adult in the household working."

Fifth place goes to Madison, which is both the state capital of Wisconsin and the home of the University of Wisconsin. The Madison area, with only 543,000 residents, is the smallest metro in the top 10.

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Sixth through 10th on the list of America's best markets for women in business are Boston, Denver, Columbus, Atlanta and New Haven, Conn.

The Bizjournals study identified three qualities that these top-rated areas share:

• Education. It's a truism that higher levels of education bring higher levels of pay. Washington, as already noted, leads the nation in the percentage of women with bachelor's and advanced degrees. The runners-up are San Francisco-Oakland on the former list, Boston on the latter.
• Elevated salaries. Only eight markets have pay scales so high that more than 4 percent of their female workers earn six-figure salaries. Included in that elite group are all four frontrunners in the overall rankings.
• Entrepreneurship. The top 10 markets, taken as a group, have 274 woman-owned businesses for every 10,000 residents. That's 24 percent above the national average of 221 per 10,000.

"These are places with exciting business climates and strong population growth," NAWBO's Fuller says of the top-rated markets. "I think they tend to be more creative and more open to the advancement of women."

At the bottom of the standings is Ogden, Utah, which has the dubious distinction of being America's most unattractive market for women in business, according to Bizjournals' formula.

The wage gap between the sexes is wider in Ogden than in any other metro included in the study. The typical female worker in the Ogden area is paid 50 percent less than the typical male.

Ogden also ranks among the six worst markets in three other categories: women with advanced degrees, females with salaries of $100,000 or more, and the percentage of local managerial and professional jobs held by women.

A second Utah metro, No. 92 Salt Lake City, joins Ogden in the overall bottom 10, a trend that Adams attributes, in part, to the state's dominant religion.

"Utah is a heavily Mormon state, a very patriarchal society," she says. "It's a society where the expectations for women are different than in most other parts of the country."

Also mired in the bottom five are Bakersfield and Stockton, Calif.; Augusta, Ga.; and Palm Bay-Melbourne, Fla.

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