Students for Reproductive Justice hosted an event highlighting women’s reproductive health, the gender gap and racial inequalities within the health care system in the Student Resource Building Multipurpose Room on May 7 from 6-8:30 p.m.
SRJ handed out various books on women’s reproductive health. Jaidy Pearson / Daily Nexus
The event, titled “Bridging the Gap: Research on Women’s Reproductive Health,” featured a presentation from members of Students for Reproductive Justice (SRJ) who discussed the gender gap and racial inequalities within the health care system, followed by a presentation from Dr. Caitlin Taylor, a UC Santa Barbara psychological & brain sciences professor who discussed the lack of research in women’s health and the role of hormones in the body.
Elubia’s Kitchen provided catering, and SRJ handed out various books on women’s reproductive health and reproductive health products including tampons, pads, pregnancy and ovulation tests.
The co-directors of SRJ, fourth-year political science and environmental science double major Scarlett Sarantes and fourth-year biopsychology major Anne-Sophie Geldmeyer, organized the event.
“Our mission is basically just to spread awareness and education on reproductive justice and reproductive health, and get access to the whole student body to reproductive products,” Sarantes said.
The event began with second-year history of public policy and law major Kasey Holland and second-year political science major Raven Bradley, both members of SRJ, delivering a presentation on racial and gender inequalities within the health care system.
Holland said men are 33% more likely to trust their health care provider than women due to “frequent negative experiences” that women face with their health care providers. According to Holland, doctors may consider women’s bodies “atypical” and “men’s as a norm,” and that one in five women say that a health care provider has either ignored or dismissed their symptoms when they were confident something was wrong.
Bradley continued the presentation by discussing historical and ongoing injustices faced by Black women in health care. Bradley discussed the “father of gynecology,” J. Marion Sims, who developed gynecological procedures through inventing a special kind of speculum and developed surgical techniques to help with vaginal and childbirth complications. However, these discoveries came largely due to experiments Sims performed on enslaved Black women without their consent and with no anesthesia.
“There were three young women that he performed on routinely, and instead of them being acknowledged and the pain they went through, they’re often discarded. And you know, he is the topic of discussion without acknowledging the pain that he caused Black women,” Bradley said.
Bradley also discussed socio-economic factors which affect Black women’s health, such as poverty rates being 28% for Black women compared to 10% for white women, having higher uninsured rates, being “three times more likely to die during pregnancy” or in postpartum than white women and how “disproportionately, Black women give birth in lower quality hospitals.”
“There was a study done that showed that if Black women were able to give birth in the same hospitals as white women, the Black maternal mortality rate would decrease by 47%,” Bradley said.
Taylor then gave a presentation highlighting the lack of research on women’s health factors in neuroimaging, medical imaging focusing on the brain, emphasizing that only 1% of studies done center on matters specific to women’s bodies.
“Less than 1% of research published in neuroimaging has actually taken into account or studied something relevant to women’s health and the brain,” Taylor said.
Taylor is also the director of operations for the Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, a research entity headquartered at UCSB which “shines a spotlight” on understudied factors in women’s neuroscience, according to Taylor.
Guest speaker Dr. Caitlin Taylor discussed the lack of research in women’s health and the role of hormones in the body. Jaidy Pearson / Daily Nexus
“What we’re trying to do is just build a research entity and build a community that can start to ask questions in women’s health and brain health and accelerate discovery in women’s health,” Taylor said.
She continued by discussing how hormones affect bodily functions, controlling mood and growth, as well as hormonal contraceptives like birth control pills, which produce synthetic hormones that suppress natural hormone production.
Fourth-year sociology major and SRJ Publicity Coordinator Luna Neumann picked up the book “This Is Your Brain on Birth Control” by Sarah E. Hill to “learn more” about hormones. She emphasized the intersection of racism and sexism within health care.
“It’s the intersection of a lot of really essential concepts. I think we should, like we as women, should know how to advocate for ourselves in the health care setting and know how to learn where maybe we’re not getting the care we deserve,” Neumann said.
Fourth-year psychological & brain sciences major Katie Murphy-Quinn found it “empowering” that SRJ was giving away menstrual products at the event. She discussed the importance of being informed about women’s reproductive health.
“I think especially in a college space where now, more than high schoolers, people are having sex. People are now fully into adulthood and serious relationships are happening. It’s important to know about it,” Murphy-Quinn said.
The event concluded with a Kahoot based on Taylor’s presentation, where the winner won the book “Killing the Black Body” by Dorothy E. Roberts, along with a bullet vibrator.
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the May 15, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus
