women especially in their 50s. it s not just a male disease. women are a lota of times dismissed from the hospital mid-heart attacks. we don t have hollywood heart d attacks. we have pain in our necks. we feel nauseous. womenee have to advocate for ourselves, but, please, doctors and the health system have to be able to trust. such an important took. who shouldd read it and why? everybody should read it, but not i just woman. let me tell you, every woman has a story, a medical misogyny story and if they don t they know someone who does. men need to read it as well. often our partners, our witnesses, andrt we can t move forward in this conversation and in this revolution without our male allies. the new book is entitled the pain gap: how sexism and racism in health care kill women.
The pandemic has only exacerbated the racial disparities in birth outcomes, but new legislation focused on reducing Black maternal deaths provides hope.
we know sexism is demoralizing and deadly. the united states is one of the highest marriage mortality rates in the globe. 700 pregnancy-related deaths here year in this country. two-thirds considered preventable. one argues it s the direct result of rampant sexism. she makes her case in the pain gap to which she spoke to 100 women, every one of them re-counting experiences where their pain was dismissed by the very people they counted on to help. she joins me now. congratulations on the book. let s start with what brought you to writing this, your owner experience with childbirth. what did you learn through that process? thank you so much for having me, alicia.
even though the term medically is defined gender neutrally, women of color, you and i both know that that word is linked to women. when was the last time we heard a man being called hysterical? and in my book, i actually dive into the history of the word hysteria and where it comes from, tracing it back to the ancient egyptians, the ancient greeks. my question was, was it always like this? were women always just not credible and not believed about our health? and it turns out, yes, and guess who was describing us as hysterical the longest men. again, the book is the pain gap: how sexism and racism in health care kill women. thank you and congratulations. next, how a one-letter change to passport applications is leading to millions of americans being accepted for who they are, at least on paper. first, a preview of what is ahead tonight on ayman.
what do you see as a solution? well, the radical thing i propose in my book. you know, even though i deal with such morbid and depressing issues is that this is not a doom and gloom book. it s not a doom and gloom issue. the radical thing i propose in the pain gap is can we believe women, let s believe women, let s believe women of color. when we tell you we think something s wrong, when we tell you we re in pain, believe us. there s a pain gap, but there s also a credibility gap. and that has to be closed. we have to make it clear that investing in women s health is a priority because this is a solvable solution. it s not cancer or aids. it s women s health. it s not an enigma. i want to ask you because you point out something that i love which is that women are often dismissed as psychosomatic. that s linked to the history of women being deemed hysterical. why does that word still carry so much weight? gosh, you know, i actually wanted to call my book hysterical.