“We’re No. 5 in the nation for the growth of women-owned business. Now that can’t be right. Because, you know, if you read the national narrative, we keep y’all chained to wood-burning stoves down here.”
—Gov. Phil Bryant at the Jackson Chamber Partnership meeting last week touting Mississippi’s business-friendly climate.
Why it Stinks: No, we don’t keep women chained to stoves down here in Mississippi—but we do plenty else that’s harmful. For example, we are a state that relentlessly fights against funding education, limits reproductive care and rejects attempts to close the wage gap between men and women, to name just a few. Moreover, what Gov. Bryant fails to realize is that perhaps the reasons such immense opportunities exist for women here is because we’re starting from so far behind the 8-ball. We’re happy that women are finally coming up in Mississippi, but let’s be completely honest about it.
