Idaho is the second worst state for women according to a 2015 WalletHub ranking. States were ranked in three categories — workplace environment, education and political empowerment — and in the overall ranking Idaho was ranked 49th, finishing above Utah, which was ranked as the worst U.S. state for women in 2015.

"That seems reasonable and true as far as what's accepted in main stream academics," said Dr. Jeremy Thomas, the director of gender and sexuality studies at Idaho State University. "There is overwhelming evidence at the national level that women don't make as much money, don't have the same job opportunities and don't get the same education."  

Idaho was ranked 33rd for workplace environment which looked at the differences in pay, number of executives, average work hours, number of minimum wage workers, unemployments rates and entrepreneurship based on gender.  

Idaho was ranked 48th for largest work hours gap, with women working more hours then men. However women are still earning less than their male counterparts and women make up two-thirds of minimum wage workers nationwide, according to the National Women's Law Center.

Idaho ranked 30th in political empowerment which looked at the percentage of female lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and in State Legislature according to the National Conference of State Legislature. This year over 27 percent of Idaho lawmakers were female, which is an increase of about one percent from 2014.

"It is hard to see trends over just a year, but things are better than they were 30 or 40 years ago" said Thomas. "There has been a slow and relatively steady increase, you can say men and women are certainly more equal now than in the past."  

Nationally women represent about 24 percent of lawmakers, with women holding 1,794 of the 7,383 seats in national and state legislature. Sixty percent of female lawmakers are Democrats, 39 percent are Republicans and less then 1 percent are Nonpartisan or Third Party.

Idaho was able to keep itself out of the bottom five in most categories except for Education where the state finished dead last. Education rankings were based on the percentage of residents, ages 25 and older, with a Bachelor's Degree or higher and on math test scores.  

Idaho also had the second largest educational achievement gap, again, ranking just above Utah.

Thomas said national trends show that men and women pursue Bachelor's degrees at about the same rate but women don't pursue Master's degrees or Doctorate degrees at the same rate as men. Women are also less likely to pursue careers and education in math and science fields.

This gap in education contributes to the gaps in pay and job opportunities between men and women. That's not to say the educational opportunities aren't there but Thomas said culture plays a major role in why some Idaho women don't pursue education.

"The easy reason is that Idaho is a rural state," said Thomas. "In rural areas women are more likely to have more children."

Thomas said the more children a woman has the less likely she is to pursue achievements in education or focus on job opportunities.

"The social and religious conservatism here also plays a part," said Thomas. "Women are more encouraged to be in the home and not focus on education or career goals."

This seems to ring true since the top 5 best states for women are also blue states — Hawaii, New York, Illinois, Maryland and Vermont — while Idaho joined red states Wyoming, Texas, South Carolina and Utah in the bottom 5. The only trend breaker is swing state Pennsylvania which ranked 45th.

Globally the United States is ranked 20th in the world for gender equality, finishing behind countries like Iceland, the Philippines, Latvia, Burundi, South Africa and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom and Australia.

The U.S. finished in the top 5, in fourth place, for economic participation and opportunity for women, behind Burundi, Norway and Malawi. However the U.S. ranked 39th in educational attainment for women behind Australia, Botswana and Malta — 3 of the 25 countries that tied for first place — but also behind Russia, Cuba, Germany, Nicaragua and Honduras.

The U.S. was also ranked 54th for women's political empowerment — behind Iceland, Nicaragua, Cuba, the United Kingdom, Mexico and Israel — and 62nd for women's health and survival — behind Brazil, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Egypt and Lebanon — according to the Global Gender Gap Report from 2014.