Visualizing the South is designed to build shared understanding of the region.
By mapping outcomes, highlighting patterns, and creating interactive dashboards, Visualizing the South presents the region as more than a collection of deficits and a place of community, local strength, and real opportunity for progress.
This month’s Visualizing the South explores women’s participation in the labor force across U.S. counties. Use the maps to compare where women make up the population and where they are represented in the labor force, and to explore how these patterns vary across regions and communities.
In most counties, women make up about half of the adult population. When we compare women’s share of the population to their share of the labor force at the county level, a new picture emerges. In many places, women are underrepresented in the labor force relative to their share of the population.
These differences are easy to miss when looking at state-level data, but at the county level they become much more visible. This shows that labor force participation varies by locality and is shaped by community-level conditions rather than broad regional trends.
When we look at the counties with the largest gaps, both where women are overrepresented and underrepresented in the labor force, the South stands out among all regions. Many of the counties with greatest disparity appear to be rural and span both ends of the spectrum, with very high and very low participation.
The fact that the South appears on both ends of the spectrum suggests that these differences may reflect broader socio-economic conditions. This raises important questions about what other factors contribute to these patterns, such as education levels, industry mix, and how the public policy environment influences the choices women make when balancing caregiving with generating income.
Together, these maps highlight how local economic and social conditions shape opportunities and outcomes for women across communities.
Data: US Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020–2024.
