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crimination in health care found that more than half the women respondents felt it was a serious problem and about 20 percent reported that a provider ignored or dismissed their symptoms . These observations have been borne out in studies showing that women are more frequently misdiagnosed , experience delays in diagnosis , are given less pain medication and less effective pain medication , and in general , receive less evidence-based care than men with the same symptoms , in a wide range of diseases .

If individual attitudes are slow to extinguish , policy changes can provide a push . Women doctors , researchers and lawmakers , working in concert , are wringing gender discrimination out of the health care system one insurance denial at a time . In Rhode Island , what looked in August like significant progress with a ceremonial flourish represents the confluence of those forces .

According to numbers compiled by the Center for American Women and Politics , in the last two decades , the percentage of women in the Rhode Island House and Senate fluctuated somewhere around 25 percent . The 2016 election of President Donald Trump galvanized Democratic women nationwide to run for office , and that percentage started to climb . Women now occupy 44 percent of the legislative seats on Smith Hill — an all-time high .

“ Let me tell you , it ’ s a whole different place ,” says Representative Susan Donovan ( D-District 69 , Bristol , Portsmouth ), who sponsored a pay gender equity bill — also signed into law , in August .

“ Women tend to pass legislation that ’ s good for families and what ’ s good for families is good for all Rhode Islanders . We know what our priorities are , and we really push them . Now we are getting a lot of work done that we couldn ’ t under that patriarchal , authoritarian leadership we were living under for decades .”

House Speaker K . Joseph Shekarchi has been a key ally , women legislators say , and a welcome change from the management style of his predecessor , Nicholas Mattiello , whose tenure from 2014 to 2020 was marred by controversies and accusations of retaliation against Democratic dissidents — especially women .

These efforts also have been buoyed by outside organizations , such as the Rhode

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