Minnesota has a reason to be proud of the color purple, but it’s not because of our football team.

The staff at the Upshot for the New York Times compiled an interactive map with data showing where women in the U.S. are working, and Minnesota women lead the nation when it comes to participating in the workforce.

The purple on the map highlights areas where higher percentages of women between the ages of 25 and 54 are working compared to the national average. More than 95 percent of the counties in Minnesota crush the U.S. average.

As factories have shut down over the years and businesses moved opportunities into other fields, women were able to take advantage of the new job market. Plus, as women become more educated, as many of them are in our state, their options for employment expand.

It also didn’t hurt that Governor Mark Dayton signed the Women’s Economic Security Act into law last May. WESA provides greater workplace protections for women, prohibits employers from requiring employees not discuss their wages and makes significant moves to try to close the gender wage gap.

While Minnesota is one of the most purple states in the country, many of our neighbors in the Midwest have high percentages of employed women too, including both Dakotas, Iowa and even Wisconsin (despite Scott Walker’s not-so-women-friendly policies)!

It’s a good time to be a woman in the Midwest, but it’s even better in Minnesota.

(Map credit: the New York Times)