While Carrie Bradshaw does laps in her Olympic-pool-size closet of Manolos and Gossip Girls try to out-couture each other, real women have real problems. Don't let the diamonds you see on TV blind you. A study just released by the Institute for Women's Policy Research and the New York Women's Foundation reveals a bleak reality for the female residents of New York state, whose economic status is worse than it was two decades ago. As Reuters reports, New York ranks 40th in the country for women above poverty level, significantly down from its place at number 30 in 1989.
Sure, there are other states that fare worse (Texas and North Carolina, to name a couple), but the study still suggests considerable economic hardship -- especially for women of color. New York is one of the most expensive states in the nation -- whether you spend like Carrie or save like, well, no woman on TV -- and the already gaping divide between the rich and the poor is rapidly growing. And then there's the gender divide: New York women earn 78.4 percent of what men make. Perhaps it's time to turn off the televised myths of a glitzy New York and face up to the real world of female New Yorkers, who increasingly struggle to make ends meet.
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