United WE Featured in The Kansas City Star on Women’s Economic Security

Why would two cities in the same metropolitan area rank nearly 100 places apart when it comes to women’s well-being?

That question is at the center of a recent Kansas City Star column examining why Overland Park ranked No. 7 and Kansas City, Missouri, ranked No. 103 on WalletHub’s 2026 list of the Best & Worst Cities for Women.

United WE President & CEO Wendy Doyle spoke with the Kansas City Star about why rankings like these are an opportunity to go deeper and examine the conditions shaping women’s economic participation.

“It does cause us to pause and maybe look a little bit further beneath the numbers. What are the conditions that are working in one community and what’s not working in another?”

As Wendy noted, factors such as household income and access to affordable child care can compound existing barriers to financial security. United WE’s research found that women are three times more likely than men to leave the workforce because of child care, a decision that can have lasting effects on earnings, retirement savings, and long-term financial independence.

Read the full opinion piece in The Kansas City Star: Is Overland Park a much better place for women than KC? Here’s what I found