In the US, are womens rights still below mens in any capacity?

1. Legal equality on paper, persistent gaps in practice

Federal law bars sex discrimination, but government audits and analysts repeatedly find an “implementation gap” where laws are not enough to close disparities in employment, earnings, retirement, health, and violence prevention; the U.S. still shows measurable gender disparities across programs that federal agencies manage ^{[2] [6]}.

2. Money and retirement: the pay gap, long-run losses, and slow progress

Women in the U.S. still earn less on average than men — analyses show women’s median hourly earnings were about 85% of men’s in 2024, with younger cohorts faring better (around 95% for ages 25–34) but the overall gap remaining relatively stable over two decades — and that gap compounds into lower retirement savings and Social Security outcomes ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Occupational segregation and leadership shortfalls

Women remain underrepresented in the highest‑paid jobs and leadership roles; researchers and advocacy groups document both horizontal segregation — concentration of women in lower‑paid occupations — and slow gains at the top of business and government, which contributes to persistent income and power imbalances ^{[3] [4] [5]}.

4. Health, maternal outcomes, and unequal burdens

Health indicators show concrete inequality: the U.S. has among the highest maternal mortality rates of developed countries and Black women face far higher risks of pregnancy‑related death than White women — a signal that reproductive‑health disparities and racial intersections remain areas where women fare worse ^{[2] [7]}.

5. Intersectional and gender‑minority vulnerabilities

Economic and social harms are not evenly distributed: women of color and transgender people experience higher poverty and job instability, with transgender respondents reporting job loss or discrimination tied to gender identity — highlighting that aggregate gender metrics can understate worst outcomes faced by subgroups ^[3].

6. Perception, politics, and uneven state landscapes

Public opinion is polarized by gender: many women report dissatisfaction with equality in job opportunities while many men view equality as largely achieved; state‑by‑state rankings also vary widely — some states approach parity on certain indicators while others lag — so lived reality depends heavily on geography and policy choices ^{[8] [9]}.

7. Why progress has been uneven: structural, cultural, and policy drivers

Experts point to a mix of causes: caregiving and family responsibilities that still fall disproportionately on women, employer practices and occupational sorting, gaps in enforcement and data, and international comparisons where other wealthy democracies have adopted more systematic gender policy tools — all producing the stubborn disparities documented by economists and policy institutes ^{[10] [5] [6]}.

Conclusion: are women’s rights still below men’s in any capacity in the U.S.?

Unequivocally, yes — across earnings, retirement security, representation in leadership and politics, maternal health outcomes, and the disproportionate harms faced by women of color and transgender people, women continue to experience disadvantages compared with men despite formal legal protections ^{[1] [3] [2]}. That said, there are areas of genuine progress (educational attainment, some labor‑force metrics, state variability) and younger cohorts show narrower wage gaps, meaning the picture is mixed rather than uniformly bleak; the remaining task is translating laws into enforceable policies, targeted supports, and better data to close the implementation and intersectional gaps identified by multiple sources ^{[4] [7] [6]}.