• Overview
  • Highlights
  • Specifics
    • Demographics and Diversity
    • Work and the Economy
    • Education and Educators
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • Safety and Justice
    • Leadership and Political Participation
  • Considerations
    • Opportunities
  • Acknowledgments
    • Collaborators and Partners
  • About the WGC
    • WGC Leadership
    • WGC Grantmaking
WGC REPORT
  • Overview
  • Highlights
  • Specifics
    • Demographics and Diversity
    • Work and the Economy
    • Education and Educators
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • Safety and Justice
    • Leadership and Political Participation
  • Considerations
    • Opportunities
  • Acknowledgments
    • Collaborators and Partners
  • About the WGC
    • WGC Leadership
    • WGC Grantmaking

Introduction

Background

In 2021, the Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County embarked on a journey to better understand the challenges and needs of women and girls in Howard County as part of our 20th anniversary year in 2022.

Our goal was two-fold:
​
  • To gather and examine existing data and develop a baseline report through a gender lens that identifies key issues areas that impact women and girls in Howard County in order to inform our past, current and future grantmaking.
  • To provide to other Howard County funders, nonprofit partner organizations, government agencies, and the community for use in determining funding, supporting, and implementing programs and developing legislation to address the needs of women and girls in our county.​

Having gathered information from government, field, and research experts and identified key issue areas impacting women and girls in Howard County, we believe the Women's Giving Circle of Howard County is now well positioned to learn from our past grantmaking and enhance our future grantmaking to better support women and girls in our community. And, we hope that others in the community will utilize this data to enhance support for women and girls as well.
Research and Methodology

The State of Women and Girls in Howard County is a baseline report that highlights gender differences and inequities between women and men in Howard County and is a compilation of information about women from statistics published by a range of federal, state, and county agencies as well as public, private, and nonprofit organizations. 

​In particular, we are pleased to leverage and utilize information from the recently released 
Maryland Women: A Status Report. In 2016, the Maryland Commission for Women launched the "Voices of Maryland Women Listening Tour". By traveling more than 3,000 miles across the state over a two-year period, the Commission conducted 19 public forums where women shared their everyday challenges and consolidated their findings in a publication titled, Maryland Women: A Status Report. The concerns raised by women across Maryland were presented in six categories by the Maryland Commission.

​
In The State of Women and Girls in Howard County, the WGC presents information on the state of women and girls in Howard County in the same six categories in order to remain consistent with the state’s analysis. The six categories are as follows:

  • Demographics and Diversity 
  • Work and the Economy 
  • Education and Educators 
  • Health and Well-Being
  • Safety and Justice 
  • Leadership and Political Participation

Analyzing existing data on women and girls enabled us to study critical areas highlighting gender gaps. Although data are not available on every relevant issue and the years for which information is accessible often vary, this approach allowed us to gather information in an efficient manner. We conducted two dozen individual interviews to:
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  • Gather information from field and research experts
  • Elevate voices of women by sharing their stories
  • Identify key issues impacting women and girls in Howard County

This baseline report highlights data by gender and race when available. Different agencies and organizations collect information by using different race/ethnicity categories so consequently the information in this report reflect these differences. 

Further research is needed, especially with regard to how these disparities may have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic to more fully understand the challenges women face as society continues to try and recover and the WGC plans to update this baseline report data with new information in 2023, and release an updated report every two years thereafter. 
The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County, Maryland is building a community of philanthropists and creating a permanent legacy to address the needs of women and girls in Howard County. www.womensgivingcircle.org
  • Overview
  • Highlights
  • Specifics
    • Demographics and Diversity
    • Work and the Economy
    • Education and Educators
    • Health and Wellbeing
    • Safety and Justice
    • Leadership and Political Participation
  • Considerations
    • Opportunities
  • Acknowledgments
    • Collaborators and Partners
  • About the WGC
    • WGC Leadership
    • WGC Grantmaking