The Marquette Tribune
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Opinions
PAGE 10
EMPOWERING WOMEN Alexandra Garner, Executive Opinions Editor Hope Moses, Assistant Opinions Editor
Editor’s Note: The stories in this edition focus on women’s issues in honor of International Women’s Day.
Allyship with women calls for active engagement
Being an ally to women at Marquette University requires more than a verbal commitment during Women’s History Month. Allyship requires a constant dedication to listening, uplifting and supporting women on campus every day. Recognizing the inequities that women experience on campus, in workplace environments, through interactions with other students, faculty and staff is important, regardless of if they are subtle or clear. In some classrooms where the majority of students are men, women may be talked over, cut off or “mansplained” to by their peers or professors. Women may be seen as less intelligent and overlooked by men in male-dominated fields, such as STEM. In co-ed student organizations, female leaders may be ignored by their male counterparts. Among students, women may be scrutinized for their appearances, actions, viewpoints and words. Women may be judged for wearing certain types of clothing, sharing their
Krisha Patel While having a baby can bring joy to many families, discussions about maternal health, especially Black maternal health, often fall out of focus due to persisting racism in health care. The average pregnancy related mortality rate in the United States is 17.2 deaths per 1000,000 births across all races, according to the American Journal of Managed Care. However, the average pregnancy related mortality rate is the highest for Black women at 43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. The infant mortality rate is also higher among Black infants than white infants; Black infants have 2.3 times the mortality rate of white infants. These differences in mortality rates across Black and white mothers and children can point to systemic racism and lack of care for Black patients
opinions in class discussions and even exercising at the gym. In every aspect of campus life, stigmas against women can be intentionally or unintentionally perpetuated. It’s important to keep in mind that the experience of women on campus is not singular. At a predominantly white institution, the experience for women, specifically women of color, can be drastically different. While Marquette was founded in 1881, women were not admitted to undergraduate programs until 1909. However, the first Black woman to graduate from Marquette was Mabel Watson Raimey. Raimey was not only the first Black woman to earn a law degree from Marquette and be admitted to the Wisconsin Bar in 1927 but she was also the first Black woman to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. According to the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis, there are 1,295 students of
color who identify as female compared to 2,909 white students who identify as female, as of fall 2021. For students of color who identify as male, there are only 925 compared to 2,303 white students who identify as male. The challenges that women of color on campus face are exacerbated, as they have to navigate campus life as women and people of color. Allies need to make efforts to not only amplify women of color’s voices but also to listen to their stories. This also requires uplifting women who identify as transgender and/or transfeminine. Transgender and transfeminine women have often been excluded from conversations and activism involving women’s rights and equality. The responsibility to create safer and more equitable spaces for women doesn’t just fall on men. Women supporting women is also crucial. Cisgender white women, who have largely been the first group to experience the benefits of gender equality
progress before other marginalized groups of women, need to create more inclusive environments. In a world where cis men are largely in positions of power, men need to reflect on ways they can create spaces for women. HeforShe, a United Nations solidarity movement focused on gender equality, shared that men can be better allies by not sharing sexist content or hate speech, being a bystander to violence against women and communicating with women in their lives about ways they can act in solidarity. Additionally, cis white women need to take an intersectional approach to the feminism movement. Excluding women of color and women who identify as transgender is inequitable, wrong and anti-feminist. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles who coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989, explained in a 2020 “Time” interview that intersectional feminism is a “prism for seeing the way in which
various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other.” Using an intersectional lens to focus on women’s issues involves understanding that other aspects of a women’s identity can create opportunities or challenges; these can include race, sexual orientation, class, religion and physical ability. Allyship requires active engagement in conversations about the struggles that women on campus face. Addressing inequities calls for reflecting on ways that you’ve contributed to gender inequality and ways moving forward that you can disrupt the status quo.
that continues in medical fields. One reason is that Black patients may be seen as undervalued and not given the same attention and care as white patients and their health complaints are turned away. This could be because of implicit biases among medical staff. Health care providers need to reflect and recognize where their implicit biases are discriminately influencing the care they give to different patients. Celebrities aren’t any exception. For example, protennis athlete Serena Williams said in an interview with CNN that her complaints of feeling pain and shortness of breath during her recovery were dismissed by the medical staff shortly after her emergency C-section. This led to her developing a pulmonary embolism, where a blood clot from the legs can get dislodged and get into the lungs. Williams had reported having a history of
blood clots. Due to the delay in receiving adequate treatment and lacking close monitoring, Williams ended up in the operating room once more to treat her pulmonary embolism along with other complications. Similarly, Olympic athlete Allyson Felix said that she almost lost her life as well as her baby’s life due to complications of preeclampsia, in which someone’s blood pressure rises to dangerous levels in pregnancy and the urine becomes filled with protein and can become toxic. Felix said in an interview with ESPN that she found she had severe preeclampsia much later in her pregnancy, around 32 weeks, which led to her daughter being born several weeks early. Typically preeclampsia is diagnosed around week 20. Black mothers deserve the same attention and care as their white counterparts.
Another factor that can increase risks for higher maternal mortality rate is poverty. Black women are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as white women. According to the National Partnership for Women & Children, a Black woman who works full-time and year round typically makes 62 cents to every dollar a white woman makes. Additionally, the experience of being a Black woman in the United States, in which structures of racial inequality continue to persist, is largely tied to higher maternal and infant mortality rates. Dealing with the day-today challenges of racism in the U.S. can biologically alter the stress levels in Black mothers over time and can create a kind of “weathering” effect on the body. These high, long-term levels of stress can also lead to high blood pressure and preeclampsia in Black mothers, which can lead to higher rates of maternal and
infant mortality. This is horrifying. Racism in the U.S. is truly killing Black mothers and babies. Black women not only have to deal with the challenges of racism in their day-to-day lives, such as interpersonal and structural racism, but they also have to deal with discrimination by health care workers. We need to address the trend in high maternal mortality rates among Black women and how it ties into racism. We need to advocate for a change in the health care system by making all the resources available and accessible to everyone. Health care providers need to understand their racial bias when providing care. More importantly, we can be a voice for Black mothers to ensure that they get the same care as anyone else.
Black mothers, infants deserve better
The editorial was crafted with leadership by the executive opinions editor. The executive board consists of the executive director of the Wire, managing editor of the Marquette Tribune, managing editor of the Marquette Journal, general manager of MUTV, general manager of MUR and ten additional top editors across the organization.
Krisha Patel is a junior studying nursing and Spanish for the health professions. She can be reached at krisha.patel@marquette.edu
