WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 Imagine for a second, it is the early 1970s. 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:06.639 You've had a great job. You have a solid income. 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:08.560 And you decide you want to build some credit. 00:00:08.900 --> 00:00:11.240 Makes sense. Right. So you walk into a local 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:13.839 bank to apply for a standard credit card. You 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:15.619 fill out all the paperwork. You hand it over. 00:00:15.740 --> 00:00:17.600 And the teller looks at you and says, great. 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.120 Now, we just need your husband to come down here 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:22.660 and sign this for you. Wow. And if you're single, 00:00:23.480 --> 00:00:26.160 you might just be entirely out of luck. I mean, 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.640 that scenario, it sounds like something out of 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:31.699 the Victorian era, but we are literally talking 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:33.939 about the era of disco and bell bottoms. It's 00:00:33.939 --> 00:00:37.539 wild. It really is. perfectly frames this massive 00:00:37.539 --> 00:00:39.560 contradiction that we're jumping into today. 00:00:40.259 --> 00:00:41.780 Because, you know, usually when we talk about 00:00:41.780 --> 00:00:44.799 the United States on the global stage, there's 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.659 this immense foundational pride in being the 00:00:47.659 --> 00:00:50.659 ultimate beacon of equality. But then you look 00:00:50.659 --> 00:00:53.079 at international treaties and you stumble across 00:00:53.079 --> 00:00:57.060 this staggering juxtaposition. The U .S. champions 00:00:57.060 --> 00:01:01.450 global human rights, yet it is one of only seven 00:01:01.450 --> 00:01:04.530 nations on the entire planet standing right alongside 00:01:04.530 --> 00:01:07.750 Iran and Sudan that has never ratified the United 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:09.989 Nations Convention on the Elimination of All 00:01:09.989 --> 00:01:11.989 Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Yeah, 00:01:11.989 --> 00:01:14.489 it really forces you to hit pause. Yeah. It makes 00:01:14.489 --> 00:01:17.189 you re -evaluate the assumptions we make about 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:19.670 American progress. We have this tendency to treat 00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:22.849 history as a clean, straight, upward line, you 00:01:22.849 --> 00:01:24.810 know, especially with civil rights. But when 00:01:24.810 --> 00:01:26.810 you get into the actual mechanics of how rights 00:01:26.810 --> 00:01:29.689 are distributed, the reality is incredibly fractured. 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:32.140 OK, let's unpack this. Because for this deep 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:34.299 dive, we are pulling from a massive compilation 00:01:34.299 --> 00:01:36.439 of history and data from the Wikipedia article 00:01:36.439 --> 00:01:38.659 on women in the United States. And our mission 00:01:38.659 --> 00:01:41.159 today is to look way past the standard textbook 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:43.340 timelines that we all, you know, memorized in 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:45.459 middle school. Right, the very sanitized version. 00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:49.000 Exactly. We want to understand the true legal, 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:51.980 economic and social trajectory of women in America. 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:54.760 We need to figure out the how and the why behind 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.060 the surprising gaps between our cultural perception 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:00.000 of equality and the factual reality on the ground. 00:02:00.189 --> 00:02:02.489 And the goal here is to look at these historical 00:02:02.489 --> 00:02:05.290 data points, not just as isolated trivia facts, 00:02:05.530 --> 00:02:08.210 but as interconnected systems. Every banking 00:02:08.210 --> 00:02:10.389 regulation, every state law, every Supreme Court 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:13.870 decision, they all interlock to create the exact 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:16.550 parameters of modern American society that you 00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:18.569 navigate every single day. So let's start with 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:21.409 what is arguably the most famous milestone in 00:02:21.409 --> 00:02:23.490 this whole conversation, which is the right to 00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:25.990 vote. If you ask almost anyone when women got 00:02:25.990 --> 00:02:28.590 the right to vote in the US, they will confidently 00:02:28.590 --> 00:02:32.020 say 19 Oh, for sure. The 19th Amendment, boom, 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:34.240 finish line crossed. Yeah, that 1920 narrative 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.840 is so deeply ingrained in the American psyche, 00:02:37.240 --> 00:02:39.520 but that year is heavily mythologized. I mean, 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:41.979 the 19th Amendment was a monumental legal victory 00:02:41.979 --> 00:02:44.639 on paper, but in practice it excluded millions 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:47.189 of women, specifically women of color. See, I 00:02:47.189 --> 00:02:49.750 want to push back on how this is taught, because 00:02:49.750 --> 00:02:52.469 the way I learned it, 1920 was the finish line. 00:02:53.169 --> 00:02:55.550 But looking at this history, it feels way more 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:57.710 like the 19th Amendment was just a starting gun 00:02:57.710 --> 00:02:59.969 for a very staggered race. That's a great way 00:02:59.969 --> 00:03:02.330 to put it. And a massive portion of the runners 00:03:02.330 --> 00:03:04.610 were physically held back at the starting line 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:07.909 for decades. How did the law actually justify 00:03:07.909 --> 00:03:10.530 keeping them from voting if the Constitution 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:12.610 had just been amended? Well, what's fascinating 00:03:12.610 --> 00:03:14.729 here is that it comes down to the gap between 00:03:14.729 --> 00:03:18.090 federal declarations and local enforcement. Yeah. 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:21.110 And also the very definition of citizenship itself. 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:24.229 Let's look at Native American women. OK. They 00:03:24.229 --> 00:03:26.569 were the earliest women living in what is now 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.639 the United States. yet they weren't even considered 00:03:29.639 --> 00:03:32.219 U .S. citizens until the Indian Citizenship Act 00:03:32.219 --> 00:03:35.719 of 1924. Wait, if they were born within the borders 00:03:35.719 --> 00:03:37.759 of the United States, how are they not citizens? 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:41.120 Because legally, they were considered members 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.680 of sovereign tribal nations, not citizens of 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.860 the federal government. Oh wow. So the 19th Amendment 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.520 simply did not apply to them. And even after 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:51.900 1924, when they gained federal citizenship, individual 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:54.560 states used their own constitutions to block 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:57.110 Native Americans from the ballot box. Some states 00:03:57.110 --> 00:03:59.789 successfully maintained those restrictions. all 00:03:59.789 --> 00:04:02.370 the way into the 1960s. That is a 40 year gap 00:04:02.370 --> 00:04:05.569 between the supposed finish line and actual voting 00:04:05.569 --> 00:04:08.490 rights. Yeah. And the timeline shows similar 00:04:08.490 --> 00:04:10.729 barriers for Asian American women. Right. They 00:04:10.729 --> 00:04:13.370 face discriminatory naturalization laws that 00:04:13.370 --> 00:04:16.069 explicitly block them from becoming citizens 00:04:16.069 --> 00:04:19.730 and therefore voters until those laws were finally 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:22.050 dismantled in the mid 20th century. Exactly. 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:25.509 And then you have the systemic disenfranchisement 00:04:25.509 --> 00:04:27.430 of black women, particularly in the Jim Crow 00:04:27.430 --> 00:04:29.970 South. The 19th Amendment removed sex as a barrier 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:31.850 to voting, but it did absolutely nothing to remove 00:04:31.850 --> 00:04:34.029 barriers based on race. So local governments 00:04:34.029 --> 00:04:36.769 just pivoted. They used poll taxes, absurdly 00:04:36.769 --> 00:04:39.629 complex literacy tests that were, you know, subjectively 00:04:39.629 --> 00:04:42.750 graded by white registrars and outright violent 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:45.509 intimidation. Right. For a black woman in the 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:47.790 South, the 19th Amendment offered almost zero 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.370 practical voting power until the Voting Rights 00:04:50.370 --> 00:04:53.569 Act of 1965 essentially forced the states to 00:04:53.569 --> 00:04:56.269 comply. Unbelievable. So when we talk about 1920, 00:04:56.329 --> 00:04:59.160 we are really talking about political autonomy 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:02.459 for a very specific, primarily white demographic. 00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:05.459 This staggered rollout of voting rights is a 00:05:05.459 --> 00:05:08.519 crucial pattern. It shows us that formal recognition 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:11.360 of a right on a piece of parchment does not equal 00:05:11.360 --> 00:05:14.060 universal practice. And that pattern of delayed 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:16.459 autonomy didn't just apply to the ballot box. 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:18.920 It fundamentally shaped the American wallet. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.899 Which brings us right back to that scenario I 00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:22.600 mentioned at the start of the deep dive, removing 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:25.100 from the voting booth to the checkbook. The year 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:28.639 the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed was 1974. 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:32.060 1974. Until then, women often could not open 00:05:32.060 --> 00:05:34.980 a bank account or get a loan without a male relative's 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:37.360 signature. Why was this the standard business 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.560 practice for so long? It was really rooted in 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.079 how banks calculated risk, which was deeply tied 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.019 to societal expectations. Banks openly assumed 00:05:45.019 --> 00:05:46.920 that a woman in the workforce was just a temporary 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:49.579 employee. Just biding her time. Right. Their 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:52.000 internal logic was, well, she will eventually 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.459 get married, get pregnant, quit her job to raise 00:05:54.459 --> 00:05:57.389 children, and default on her debt. Therefore, 00:05:57.889 --> 00:06:01.350 she is an inherent credit risk unless a man legally 00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:03.329 guarantees her debt. I'm still trying to wrap 00:06:03.329 --> 00:06:05.290 my head around the timeline here. Think about 00:06:05.290 --> 00:06:07.129 it. There are women currently in the workforce, 00:06:07.569 --> 00:06:10.129 perhaps sitting in corner offices today as CEOs, 00:06:10.750 --> 00:06:13.350 who started their professional adult lives legally 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:15.509 unable to hold a credit card in their own name. 00:06:16.069 --> 00:06:17.990 This is an ancient history. It's within a single 00:06:17.990 --> 00:06:20.519 lifetime. And the financial compounding of that 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:23.379 delay is massive. I mean, access to credit is 00:06:23.379 --> 00:06:25.339 the fundamental building block of wealth in the 00:06:25.339 --> 00:06:27.500 United States. It determines your ability to 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:29.980 buy a home, start a business, or invest in the 00:06:29.980 --> 00:06:33.019 market. By locking an entire gender out of that 00:06:33.019 --> 00:06:36.040 system until the mid -1970s, you essentially 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:38.459 delayed their entry into wealth -building economy 00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:41.720 by generations. A structural inequality like 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:43.620 that doesn't just vanish the moment a bill is 00:06:43.620 --> 00:06:46.560 signed in 1974. It leaves a lingering deficit 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:48.620 in wealth accumulation. But wait, what about 00:06:48.620 --> 00:06:51.139 the Constitution? If banks are treating an entire 00:06:51.139 --> 00:06:53.480 class of people differently, doesn't the Equal 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:55.699 Protection Clause cover this? This leads right 00:06:55.699 --> 00:06:58.259 into the Equal Rights Amendment, the ERA, which 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:00.939 was supposed to provide explicit constitutional 00:07:00.939 --> 00:07:03.860 protection against sex discrimination. But its 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:06.480 current status is listed as being in legal limbo. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.519 Yes. I need an ELI -5 here. Explain it like I'm 00:07:09.519 --> 00:07:11.879 five. I thought if an amendment gets ratified 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:15.540 by 38 states, it becomes law. How can the Constitution 00:07:15.540 --> 00:07:19.959 be in limbo? fascinating procedural mess, honestly. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:22.339 To amend the Constitution, you need two -thirds 00:07:22.339 --> 00:07:25.019 of Congress to propose it, and then three -fourths 00:07:25.019 --> 00:07:27.040 of the states, which is 38 states, to ratify 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.910 it. When Congress passed the ERA in 1972, they 00:07:30.910 --> 00:07:33.170 attached a totally arbitrary seven -year deadline 00:07:33.170 --> 00:07:35.170 for the states to ratify it, which was later 00:07:35.170 --> 00:07:37.889 extended to 1982. OK, so a countdown clock was 00:07:37.889 --> 00:07:40.670 running. Yes. And by 1982, they only had 35 states, 00:07:40.769 --> 00:07:43.290 so the deadline expired. But decades later, activists 00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:46.329 revived the push, and by 2020, three more states 00:07:46.329 --> 00:07:48.189 ratified it, finally hitting that magic number 00:07:48.189 --> 00:07:50.410 of 38. So they hit the number, but they missed 00:07:50.410 --> 00:07:53.589 the deadline. Precisely. And to complicate things 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:56.329 even further, several states that ratified it 00:07:56.329 --> 00:07:59.370 back in the 70s later passed resolutions trying 00:07:59.370 --> 00:08:02.009 to rescind or take back. their ratifications. 00:08:02.350 --> 00:08:04.649 Oh, wow. So the courts are currently battling 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:08.689 over two massive questions. Can Congress retroactively 00:08:08.689 --> 00:08:12.089 remove a deadline after it has expired? And can 00:08:12.089 --> 00:08:14.629 a state legally take back a ratification once 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:17.610 it's given? Until the courts or Congress definitively 00:08:17.610 --> 00:08:19.790 answer those questions, the ERA just floats in 00:08:19.790 --> 00:08:21.529 the void. So let me get this straight. Women 00:08:21.529 --> 00:08:23.629 entered the modern workplace en masse without 00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:26.009 an explicit constitutional guarantee of equal 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.949 rights and functionally decades behind in wealth 00:08:28.949 --> 00:08:31.959 accumulation. Yes. structural friction is completely 00:08:31.959 --> 00:08:34.179 visible when you look at the paradox of degrees, 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:36.840 dollars, and the modern workplace. You cannot 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:39.179 understand the modern workplace without understanding 00:08:39.179 --> 00:08:43.139 that context. You really can't. And the statistics 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:45.320 on educational achievement are incredibly telling 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:49.679 here. Women now make up over 46 .5 % of the total 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:52.779 U .S. workforce. But more significantly, women 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:55.159 currently earn more post -secondary degrees, 00:08:55.379 --> 00:08:57.519 bachelor's, master's, and doctorate's than men 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:00.730 do. They're undeniably outpacing men in higher 00:09:00.730 --> 00:09:03.470 education. So help me reconcile this. Women are 00:09:03.470 --> 00:09:05.629 the majority of college graduates. They're nearly 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:08.350 half the workforce. Yet despite the Equal Pay 00:09:08.350 --> 00:09:11.370 Act being passed way back in 1963, the gender 00:09:11.370 --> 00:09:14.570 pay gap stubbornly persists. The current data 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:17.269 shows women earn approximately 82 cents for every 00:09:17.269 --> 00:09:21.049 dollar earned by men. And that gap widens significantly 00:09:21.049 --> 00:09:23.490 for black women and Latino women. How is that 00:09:23.490 --> 00:09:26.289 happening? Reconciling that gap is actually the 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:29.000 subject of fierce debate. among economists. Some 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.360 experts provide data supporting outright discrimination 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.100 and unconscious bias as the primary driver. They 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:35.940 point to studies where identical resumes get 00:09:35.940 --> 00:09:38.039 completely different starting salary offers just 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:39.980 by changing the name at the top to a female name. 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:42.200 But other economists push back on that, right? 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:44.860 They do. Others provide evidence pointing to 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:47.519 different variables, like occupational clustering, 00:09:47.919 --> 00:09:49.820 meaning women disproportionately enter fields 00:09:49.820 --> 00:09:53.080 like teaching or social work that society inherently 00:09:53.080 --> 00:09:56.519 values less monetarily. They also point to differences 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:00.080 in total hours worked. But almost all economists 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.159 agree on one major structural factor, which is 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:06.240 the motherhood penalty. Ah, which circles back 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.899 to infrastructure, because the US is the only 00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:11.120 high -income country on earth without federally 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:13.580 mandated paid parental leave. Exactly. You have 00:10:13.580 --> 00:10:15.700 a demographic doing exactly what society demands 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:18.019 for success, getting advanced degrees, entering 00:10:18.019 --> 00:10:20.460 the workforce. But the infrastructure hasn't 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:23.360 adapted at all. When a society treats caregiving, 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.159 childcare, and family leave as an entirely private 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:28.659 burden rather than a structural necessity, it 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:31.440 acts as a massive break on career momentum. It 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.460 pulls women out of the workforce or forces them 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:35.740 into part -time roles right during their prime 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:38.720 earning years. And beyond the broader economic 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:42.679 debate, there are also very specific, judicially 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:45.919 created loopholes that legally permit workplace 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:48.850 discrimination. I was reading the source material 00:10:48.850 --> 00:10:51.230 about the ministerial exemption and I had never 00:10:51.230 --> 00:10:54.049 heard of this. How does an organization just 00:10:54.049 --> 00:10:57.409 bypass federal civil rights law? It is rooted 00:10:57.409 --> 00:10:59.470 in the First Amendment's protection of religious 00:10:59.470 --> 00:11:02.250 freedom. The courts established the ministerial 00:11:02.250 --> 00:11:04.330 exemption to prevent the government from interfering 00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:06.769 with how religious institutions choose their 00:11:06.769 --> 00:11:09.610 leaders. So if a church decides it only wants 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:12.029 male priests, the government cannot force them 00:11:12.029 --> 00:11:14.549 to hire a female priest under anti -discrimination 00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:16.830 laws. Which makes sense on the surface when you're 00:11:16.830 --> 00:11:19.490 talking about clergy, but the definition of minister 00:11:19.490 --> 00:11:21.929 in this context is surprisingly broad, isn't 00:11:21.929 --> 00:11:24.230 it? Very broad. Courts have applied this exemption 00:11:24.230 --> 00:11:26.409 to teachers at religious schools who incorporate 00:11:26.409 --> 00:11:29.059 faith into their curriculum. or kosher supervisors 00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:32.100 or music directors. If an employee's role is 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:34.440 deemed vital to the religious mission, the employer 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:36.860 is basically granted immunity from sex discrimination 00:11:36.860 --> 00:11:39.679 suits regarding that specific employee. It is 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:41.679 a striking example of how federal protections 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.019 have very real legally protected boundaries. 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:47.240 And this theme that federal support is either 00:11:47.240 --> 00:11:50.240 absent or highly fragmented becomes incredibly 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.279 apparent when we transition from the workplace 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:54.500 to the landscape of women's health care. The 00:11:54.500 --> 00:11:56.399 health care patchwork in the U .S. is characterized 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:59.019 by a really jarring contrast. We have accessed 00:11:59.019 --> 00:12:01.019 some of the highest medical technology in the 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:03.840 world, yet we have surprisingly high mortality 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:06.480 rates. The United States has the highest maternal 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.210 mortality rate among developed nations. As of 00:12:09.210 --> 00:12:14.850 2023, it sits at 18 .6 deaths per 100 ,000 live 00:12:14.850 --> 00:12:17.289 births. And the internal disparities within that 00:12:17.289 --> 00:12:19.470 average are severe. The data shows Black women 00:12:19.470 --> 00:12:21.470 experience pregnancy -related deaths at nearly 00:12:21.470 --> 00:12:24.190 three times the rate of white women. But to understand 00:12:24.190 --> 00:12:25.970 the current health care landscape, we have to 00:12:25.970 --> 00:12:27.830 look at how authority over the body has shifted 00:12:27.830 --> 00:12:29.629 between the federal government and individual 00:12:29.629 --> 00:12:32.129 states. Birth control wasn't legalized nationwide 00:12:32.129 --> 00:12:35.409 until 1965, and abortion was legalized nationwide 00:12:35.409 --> 00:12:38.250 in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision. Right. 00:12:38.690 --> 00:12:41.029 But that legal landscape fundamentally shifted 00:12:41.029 --> 00:12:44.509 again in 2022. The Supreme Court overturned Roe 00:12:44.509 --> 00:12:47.470 and the Dobbs decision. That ruling removed federal 00:12:47.470 --> 00:12:49.250 constitutional protection for abortion rights 00:12:49.250 --> 00:12:51.549 and returned the authority to regulate or ban 00:12:51.549 --> 00:12:54.690 the procedure directly to individual state legislatures. 00:12:55.090 --> 00:12:58.159 The data indicates that medication abortion primarily 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.919 using the drug Mifapristone, now accounts for 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:03.240 the majority of abortions in the U .S. and is 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.240 the subject of ongoing legal battles. But the 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:08.059 overarching result of returning this authority 00:13:08.059 --> 00:13:10.980 to the states is massive geographical disparity. 00:13:11.240 --> 00:13:13.379 If we connect this to the bigger picture, we're 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:15.620 looking at the widest disparities in reproductive 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:18.700 health care access among all high -income democracies. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.500 Some states immediately enacted near -total bans 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:23.580 on abortion, while neighboring states passed 00:13:23.580 --> 00:13:26.159 legislation to maintain or even expand access. 00:13:26.830 --> 00:13:29.169 It reminds me of a franchise business model. 00:13:29.690 --> 00:13:31.929 When it comes to healthcare access, the U .S. 00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:34.549 operates almost like a massive fast food franchise. 00:13:35.070 --> 00:13:36.970 Corporate headquarters, the federal government, 00:13:37.509 --> 00:13:40.370 might set some very loose brand guidelines. But 00:13:40.370 --> 00:13:43.149 the local franchise owner, your state legislature, 00:13:43.850 --> 00:13:46.389 completely dictates the actual menu, the working 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:48.549 conditions, and what is available behind the 00:13:48.549 --> 00:13:50.850 counter. You can take a short drive across a 00:13:50.850 --> 00:13:53.370 state border, and your legal medical rights, 00:13:53.529 --> 00:13:55.549 your access to certain medications, and your 00:13:55.549 --> 00:13:58.200 statistical health outcomes completely and fundamentally 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:01.279 alter. That is a very apt comparison because 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:03.580 that geographical inconsistency isn't just a 00:14:03.580 --> 00:14:06.019 matter of logistical inconvenience. It dictates 00:14:06.019 --> 00:14:08.379 your level of bodily autonomy based entirely 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:10.720 on your zip code. And if the state franchise 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:12.879 owner controls your health care autonomy, what 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.220 else do they control? This brings us to a part 00:14:15.220 --> 00:14:17.139 of the history that genuinely stopped me in my 00:14:17.139 --> 00:14:20.220 tracks. We need to talk about autonomy, safety, 00:14:20.460 --> 00:14:22.649 and the child marriage shock. Yeah, this is a 00:14:22.649 --> 00:14:24.730 tough one. According to international organizations 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:27.669 like UNICEF, child marriage is defined as any 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:31.009 formal or informal union where at least one partner 00:14:31.009 --> 00:14:34.360 is under the age of 18. Globally, It is widely 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:36.940 recognized as a violation of human rights. OK, 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:39.360 I have to stop here because when you hear child 00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:41.379 marriage, you think of regions with developing 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:44.059 legal infrastructure. But the source material 00:14:44.059 --> 00:14:47.500 clearly states that as of 2023, child marriage 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:50.500 remains legal in over 40 U .S. states. Wait, 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:53.460 how does a high income democracy reconcile promoting 00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:55.919 human rights abroad while actively allowing child 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.480 marriage in over 40 of its own states today? 00:14:59.059 --> 00:15:01.539 How is that mechanically possible? I thought 00:15:01.539 --> 00:15:03.879 18 was the universal legal age of adulthood. 00:15:04.580 --> 00:15:07.200 18 is the general federal baseline for adulthood. 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:10.120 However, the regulation of marriage is deeply 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.820 embedded in state family law. While most states 00:15:12.820 --> 00:15:15.860 say you must be 18 to marry, over 40 states have 00:15:15.860 --> 00:15:18.559 written legal exceptions into their books. These 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.820 exceptions usually allow minors to marry if they 00:15:20.820 --> 00:15:23.320 have parental consent or judicial approval from 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:25.460 a local judge. So if a 16 -year -old's parents 00:15:25.460 --> 00:15:27.500 sign off, the state just steps aside and allows 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:30.240 it. Yes. And in several of those states, there 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.879 isn't even a hard minimum age floor if those 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:35.659 exceptions are met. The data overwhelmingly shows 00:15:35.659 --> 00:15:38.100 that this practice disproportionately affects 00:15:38.100 --> 00:15:40.500 young girls marrying adult men, and it leads 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:43.350 to severe measurable adverse outcomes in their 00:15:43.350 --> 00:15:46.210 education, their lifetime earning potential and 00:15:46.210 --> 00:15:48.970 their personal autonomy. It is staggering. And 00:15:48.970 --> 00:15:51.409 when we look broadly at general safety and violence, 00:15:51.610 --> 00:15:54.129 the reliance on state level enforcement is just 00:15:54.129 --> 00:15:56.769 as fractured. The Centers for Disease Control 00:15:56.769 --> 00:15:58.850 and Prevention reports that one in four women 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:01.269 suffer from at least one physical assault by 00:16:01.269 --> 00:16:03.889 a partner during adulthood. Furthermore, roughly 00:16:03.889 --> 00:16:06.070 20 percent of women in the United States have 00:16:06.070 --> 00:16:09.029 been victims of rape, which experts note is highly 00:16:09.029 --> 00:16:11.590 underreported. And again, we see a massive patchwork 00:16:11.590 --> 00:16:14.009 approach to legal protection. The federal government 00:16:14.009 --> 00:16:15.830 stepped in with the Violence Against Women Act, 00:16:16.049 --> 00:16:20.169 or VOWA, in 1994 to provide federal funding and 00:16:20.169 --> 00:16:22.669 support for survivors. But the actual criminal 00:16:22.669 --> 00:16:24.509 enforcement varies wildly depending on where 00:16:24.509 --> 00:16:27.679 you live. Right. For instance, there are no uniform 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:30.779 nationwide legal standards for prosecuting stalking. 00:16:30.899 --> 00:16:33.299 And historically, the idea of marital rape wasn't 00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:35.700 even recognized as a crime in all 50 states until 00:16:35.700 --> 00:16:39.399 1993. Even today, the way those laws are written 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:42.059 and enforced differs entirely depending on the 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:44.320 state legislature. Which brings us to the core 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.039 mechanism of change. If the laws governing your 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.200 economic power, your health care access, and 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:51.960 your physical safety are decided at the legislative 00:16:51.960 --> 00:16:54.500 table, then to change these state -by -state 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.340 realities, women must have a seat at those tables. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:16:59.700 So what does this all mean? Let's look at political 00:16:59.700 --> 00:17:01.659 representation because there have been some highly 00:17:01.659 --> 00:17:04.200 celebrated firsts. Jeanette Rankin was the first 00:17:04.200 --> 00:17:07.220 woman elected to the House back in 1917. Hattie 00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:09.519 Wyatt Caraway was the first elected senator in 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:12.720 1931. Frances Perkins was the first cabinet member 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.480 in 1933. Sandra Day O 'Connor broke the Supreme 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:18.839 Court barrier in 1981. Nancy Pelosi became the 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:21.509 first female Speaker of the House in 2007. And 00:17:21.509 --> 00:17:23.430 Kamala Harris became the first female vice president 00:17:23.430 --> 00:17:26.089 in 2021. But there has still never been a female 00:17:26.089 --> 00:17:28.910 president. Those milestones are vital historical 00:17:28.910 --> 00:17:31.109 markers. I mean, they shift cultural perceptions, 00:17:31.130 --> 00:17:33.690 but they can also mask the broader statistical 00:17:33.690 --> 00:17:36.109 reality of the rooms where laws are actually 00:17:36.109 --> 00:17:39.710 written. Out of 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 00:17:40.329 --> 00:17:43.319 only 119 are held by women. And then the Senate, 00:17:43.380 --> 00:17:45.920 out of 100 seats, only 24 are held by women. 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:49.059 24 % of the Senate. When you consider that women 00:17:49.059 --> 00:17:51.740 make up just over 50 % of the US population, 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.960 that is a glaring disproportion. It really is. 00:17:54.980 --> 00:17:56.900 And when you aggregate all of these factors, 00:17:56.960 --> 00:17:59.420 the 24 % political representation, the 82 cent 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:01.980 pay gap, the fractured health policies, you start 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:04.640 to see how the US compares globally. The World 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:07.980 Economic Forum's gender gap index from 2021 ranks 00:18:07.980 --> 00:18:11.240 the United States 30th out of 156 countries in 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:15.009 terms of gender. 30 out of 156. So how do we 00:18:15.009 --> 00:18:17.490 synthesize all of this? When you take the staggered 00:18:17.490 --> 00:18:19.710 starting line of 1920, the delayed credit access 00:18:19.710 --> 00:18:22.210 of 1974, the child marriage loopholes and the 00:18:22.210 --> 00:18:24.750 lack of paid leave, what is the psychological 00:18:24.750 --> 00:18:26.930 toll on the next generation? There is a 2019 00:18:26.930 --> 00:18:28.849 Gallup poll in the data that feels like a gut 00:18:28.849 --> 00:18:31.490 punch. Oh, it perfectly captures the culmination 00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:34.349 of everything we've discussed today. The poll 00:18:34.349 --> 00:18:37.579 found that 40 % of women under the age of 30, 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:40.000 would like to leave the United States. That is 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:42.099 compared to just 20 % of men in the exact same 00:18:42.099 --> 00:18:44.519 age group. Four out of 10 young women desire 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:47.200 to emigrate. Double the rate of young men. It 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:49.700 is a profound metric. But when you look at the 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:51.759 architecture we just mapped out, that statistic 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.779 is not a fluke. It is a highly rational, data 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:57.660 -driven response to the environment. When a demographic 00:18:57.660 --> 00:18:59.579 looks at a system where their financial autonomy 00:18:59.579 --> 00:19:02.339 is only a few decades old, where their bodily 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:04.420 autonomy changes if they drive across a state 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:06.500 line, and where their political representation 00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:09.359 is crawling upward at a glacial pace, a desire 00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:11.779 to exit that system makes complete logical sense. 00:19:12.059 --> 00:19:14.559 For everyone listening, thank you for coming 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:17.599 on this deep dive with us. We set out to look 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.400 past the middle school textbook version of history 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.400 to understand the actual mechanics of American 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.619 equality, and I think we did exactly that. We've 00:19:25.619 --> 00:19:28.579 seen the incredible hard -fought progress made 00:19:28.579 --> 00:19:31.039 over the last century. But we've also had to 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:33.960 stare directly at the very real structural gaps 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:36.819 that still heavily dictate finance, health, and 00:19:36.819 --> 00:19:39.529 law today. It is a lot of complex history to 00:19:39.529 --> 00:19:41.549 process. But as we wrap up, I want to leave you 00:19:41.549 --> 00:19:43.650 with one final thought to mull over, looking 00:19:43.650 --> 00:19:46.450 not at the past, but toward the future. We've 00:19:46.450 --> 00:19:48.789 established how our modern laws, our credit systems, 00:19:48.849 --> 00:19:51.549 and our health care models still carry the heavy 00:19:51.549 --> 00:19:54.369 biases of this staggered historical timeline. 00:19:54.829 --> 00:19:57.089 We are living in a society built on data from 00:19:57.089 --> 00:19:59.450 a time when women were legally excluded. Now, 00:19:59.670 --> 00:20:02.009 consider the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:04.900 AI doesn't think organically. It trains. And 00:20:04.900 --> 00:20:06.779 it's trained on this exact historical data we 00:20:06.779 --> 00:20:08.980 just discussed. So the profound question we have 00:20:08.980 --> 00:20:11.420 to ask ourselves as we build the next era of 00:20:11.420 --> 00:20:14.619 technology is this. Will AI permanently encode 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:17.759 the 82 -cent pay gap and these vast state -by 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.680 -state inequities into the algorithms that will 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.259 run tomorrow's world? Or can we consciously program 00:20:22.259 --> 00:20:24.039 it to finally truly level the playing field?