The Office of Women’s Advancement and Advocacy released the Delaware Women Status Report.
The comprehensive report was in the works for two years and includes information on health care, education and safety.
OWAA director Melanie Ross Levin said the report is meant to give an overview on where women stand in Delaware and act as a source for future studies and policies.
“If you don't look at the intersects, you really mask a lot of problems,” Ross Levin said. “It's really important as researchers to make sure that we paint the full picture, and we can't do that if we don't look at the complexity of the lives of Delaware women and girls.”
The subjects covered in the report are all interconnected.
“Women don't live in a vacuum,” Ross Levin said. “We are part of the community. The health care access is super important, and so we've made improvements in that area. But 5.1% of women are still uninsured, and mental health is a prevalent problem.”
The percentage of uninsured women has improved from 8% ten years ago, according to the report.
The study also notes the gender wage gap persists, with Black and Hispanic women making 61 cents and white women making 81 cents for every dollar a white man earns.
It also reports 8% of women in Delaware have no personal health care provider, which is comparable to numbers in Maryland (7%), New Jersey (9%) and Pennsylvania (7%).
Ross Levin said overall, Delaware has good policies when it comes to women’s health and comprehensive reproductive rights.
“But you can't just have policies,” Ross Levin said. “You need to have access. The report highlights that we really don't have the infrastructure for the expanding number of people moving to the state, and without that infrastructure, we're not going to have a healthy community.”
The OWAA plans to release a status report every two years.
