Oxfam recently released its Best and Worst States to Work in the U.S. report, which considers criteria like minimum wage, paid leave and the ability to organize. They found the top three places for employees are Washington, D.C., California and Oregon.

"There are vast disparities and access to critical workplace protections that vary by state," says Inimai Chettiar, president of the work-family justice organization A Better Balance.

Oxfam then narrowed in on policies that have an outsized effect on women and women of color, specifically, to rank the best states for female employees.

Oxfam examined each state's tipped minimum wage, for example, as nearly seven in 10 tipped workers are women, according to the National Women's Law Center. It analyzed various worker protections "such as equal pay, such as protection against sexual harassment at work and providing paid pumping breaks for breastfeeding workers," says Kaitlyn Henderson, senior researcher at Oxfam and author of the report.

And the organization assessed "where states allow collective bargaining for public school teachers," she says, as 77% of public school teachers are women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Here are the top 10 places in the U.S. for women workers:

1. Oregon

2. New York

3. California

4. District of Columbia

5. Illinois

6. Minnesota

7. Washington

8. Connecticut

9. Massachusetts

10. Nevada  

"I think these states generally have been a little bit more forward thinking in terms of their leave and discrimination policies," says Chettiar.

Many of the states at the bottom of the ranking are located below the Mason-Dixon line. But "I would point out that there's also been a lot of important incremental progress in the South," she says. "Both South Carolina and Tennessee recently passed paid parental leave for state government workers."

Big picture, "I think that given that this is becoming an increasing, pressing national issue on both sides of the aisle," she says. "We're going to see more states moving in the direction of making it easier for women to balance families and their other responsibilities alongside work."

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