2023-12-12 13:04:00
(CNN) — According to a new report, things are not necessarily better for American women today than for their mothers and grandmothers.
In recent years, the most important indicators of women’s safety and health have declined, the data showed.
The Population Reference Office created a women’s well-being index identifying the factors that best indicated the overall status of poverty, education, incarceration, political representation, physical and mental health, and labor force participation.
The index was created to compare the status of different generations of American women at the same stage of life, between 25 and 34 years old.
“While there have been some areas of improvement across generations, millennials are the first generation of women since the (so-called) Silent Generation to be seeing declines in overall well-being according to our index,” said one lead author. From the report, Sara Srygley, research analyst at Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit that collects population data on health and well-being. (The Silent Generation was born between 1928 and 1945, living through the Great Depression and World War II).
Affordable, quality health care is particularly an issue in rural communities for women like Tyler Azure, a 28-year-old mother from the Chippewa Nation raising six children: three biological, a stepson and her two sisters after the death of his mother. – in Havre, Montana.
Often, doctors come to the city to pay off their student debt and then move to a larger city, he said. And mental health care is hard to find.
Tyler Azure, her husband John “JJ” Allery and their four children. (Credit: Judith Rae)
“You can’t really build a relationship with doctors who are continually in cycles,” Azure said.
As a young Indigenous woman, she feels like she is often overlooked and not taken seriously, she said.
Declines in health and safety did not align with millennial women’s rankings when it came to education and employment; many of those numbers increased from previous generations, according to the report.
“It’s not about whether young women today are working hard enough or trying to improve their lives,” Srygley said. “They are getting higher education. They are entering more competitive fields, such as STEM fields and business ownership. They are doing the things that they were actually taught to believe will lead to a better life.
“Despite their best efforts, these are very real challenges,” he said.
And the report showed that the challenges are even greater for some women.
“What really stood out was that there was even less progress among black youth,” said Jamelia Harris, senior research director at Justice and Joy National Collaborative, a nonprofit that advocates for black youth. “This was probably the least surprising aspect of the report.” She was not involved in the report.
Progress in decline
There were great advances in health, safety, education and employment from the Silent Generation to baby boomers, Srygley said. Progress slowed a bit for Gen X compared to their mothers, but then things started to plateau in 2017, she added.
“In this updated report, we saw that it is no longer stagnant, but is now actively declining” for millennials, Srygley said.
According to the data, the homicide rate of millennial women increased compared to Generation X. Suicide rates nearly doubled from Generation X to the millennial generation, and maternal mortality rates have increased dramatically, the report showed.
Disparities in health and well-being are even greater for Black women, the data indicated.
Black maternal mortality is more than twice the U.S. national average, and black and Hispanic students were less likely to receive college subsidies than their white peers of similar economic status, according to the report.
The policies that influence
While it’s difficult to point to a reason why millennial women are experiencing this decline in well-being, it’s not surprising considering the social and political structures at play, Srygley said.
Progress in closing the gender pay gap has stalled, he said, and an increase in access to lethal means may have an impact on suicide rates, although those rates do not tend to change dramatically from one generation to the next, Srygley said. .
“We know that some policies may have influenced things like reducing reproductive health care protections, which several studies show increases the risk of maternal mortality and potentially also suicide rates,” Srygley said.
It makes sense then that younger women are also seeing strains on their mental health, said Martha Sánchez, director of health policy and advocacy at Young Invincibles, an organization that advocates for the education, health care and employment of young Americans. .
“Young women are seeing enormous pressure and the barriers, because they are literally legal barriers, really prevent us from taking care of ourselves,” Sánchez said.
“Everything from the lack of reproductive access and care, the lack of affordable health care, and, in some states, outright bans on, for example, abortion or highly restricted abortion, everything is really taking a toll on our mental health, on top of what that the nation has. experienced in terms of the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she added.
Genisus Holland has a job, is a student, and advocates for black women with Justice for Joy. Courtesy of Genisus Netherlands
Women need a seat at the table
When it comes to how to change wellness trends for women (particularly Black women), experts want to see more access and more inclusive decision-making.
“When we talk about health, it’s about our ability to access preventive care,” Sánchez said. “It’s our ability to afford preventive care and even routine care for chronic illnesses and our ability to afford mental health when it’s a mental health crisis.”
When it comes to addressing these issues, women must be included in decision-making, Harris said.
Conferences, protests and voting are effective ways for people to use their voice, but Genisus Holland, 21, of Richmond, Virginia, said it’s up to policymakers to do their part, too.
“There are only so many times we can say the same thing before it’s no longer our place to keep saying it. It is up to those who make the change to start making it,” she said.
And it can be tempting to overlook stories about how hard it is for women and black people, but it’s important to pay attention, she said.
“It’s very difficult to hear about the same old fight and not see the action behind it. But I would also say that it is important that whenever you have the ability, whenever you have the strength… that you spread the message,” she said.
“It’s the same old fight, but the fight isn’t over until we win,” Holland added.
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