On International Women’s Day, we gathered for a powerful conversation that moved beyond the usual dialogue around pay equity. Instead, we opened space to talk about healthcare equity—how it affects women, especially women of color—and what self-advocacy really means.
Here are a few key takeaways from the day:
1. Know your body, advocate for yourself, and don’t stop until you’re heard.
2. “You are an active collaborator in your [doctor] appointments. You should feel confident in whatever the next steps are going to be for your treatment, because it’s your life and you live with the day to day reality of whatever that health conditioning is.” -Janese Evans [A resource guide from Janese can be found here].
3. “As a provider, help me fix that, instead of just telling me to get rid of an essential part of my body.” -Veronica Appleton, A reminder to always seek out a second or third opinion!
4. It’s literally because of my eating habits (I’ve completely changed that by going vegan) and also being very mindful by exercising, and just taking care of my mental health, and loving myself, making sure that I’m taking herbal stuff, like sea moss and burdock root, drinking teas, doing detoxes and intermittent fasting, that I’ve been able to shrink my fibroids.” -Delilah Martinez
5. “So the solving for me has been an ongoing process. It’s consistent maintenance, you know? And there are days or weeks or months that are great, and then there’s setbacks. It took a lot of effort with me, with my parents’ help in their advocacy, alternative practices like functional medicine, functional nutrition. And last year, I started doing somatic therapy and body work to help with internalized mental trauma that was still in my body that I was having trouble releasing.” -Britt Julious
Thank you to our speakers for leading with such honesty and care, and to everyone who shared their voice in the room.
A special thank you to our sponsors, Daytrip and the Chicago Park District, for helping make this conversation possible.
