Why a Women’s INequality Day?

There have been so many great events, comments and tweets today. Why do we need to have a day like Women’s INequality Day for us to stay focused on the needs for women? In the US we are still facing high rates of morbidity and mortality, increasing rates of chronic diseases, such as cervical cancer and breast cancer with racial disparities. Access to early detection and treatment remain barriers for women living in resource-scarce conditions here and globally. The Global Gender Inequality Indexes include reproductive health (based on maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates); empowerment (based on proportion of government seats occupied by women and proportion of adult women aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education); and economic status (based on labor market participation rates of female and male populations aged 15 years and older). We have much to do to reach parity in the US and globally. Not only is more research needed around practice gaps in adolescent reproductive health, especially with the high rates of teen pregnancy but training of clinicians and administrators on barriers, stigma, racial injustice and the need to make health care and choice accessible. We need to raise women’s health and maternal care up!