DEPARTMENT: Health
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Dawn Emerick, Ed. D
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
A briefing on the progress made on the Status of Women Report
SUMMARY:
A briefing on the progress made by several City Departments on the Status of Women Report commissioned by the City of San Antonio.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In 2018, the City of San Antonio unanimously approved a resolution on Women’s Equity, reaffirming the commitment of the City to improve the status of women, specifically in the four following manners: 1) by eliminating all forms of violence against women, 2) by promoting the health and safety of women, 3) by promoting substantive economic and business opportunities for women, and 4) by promoting political participation and leadership by women.
A comprehensive report was prepared by Dr. Rogelio Saenz and Lily Casura from UTSA, and utilized a variety of data sources to provide a detailed account of the standing of women with respect to health, education, work, housing, civic engagement, and violence, among others.
The data from this comprehensive report was used to prepare a concise, brief infographic-based document that provided an overview on the status of women, highlighting data in the above key areas.
Since the development and release of the Status of Women report, the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District (Metro Health), the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Economic Development have been developing and implementing key initiatives focused on improving the status of San Antonio women. The recently developed Poverty Report is also guiding this work as it points to the fact that women are more likely than men to be living in poverty due in part to gender wage gaps, women’s prevalence in low-paid occupations and lack of work-family supports.
ISSUE:
Metro Health would like the opportunity to brief the Community Health and Equity Committee on the progress the City has made on addressing specific initiatives that fall within the four categories of Health and Wellbeing, Economic Opportunities, Political Participation and Violence and Safety.
ALTERNATIVES:
This item is for briefing purposes only.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact at this time.
RECOMMENDATION:
This item is for briefing purposes only.