Women’s History Month is being marked across the United States this March with tributes to women’s leadership in public life, science, education and community organizing. But the 2026 observance is also arriving with a harder public-health reality: even as national data show some signs of progress, many women still face unequal risks tied to race, income, geography and access to care. In a March 12 proclamation, the White House formally designated March 2026 as Women’s History Month, while the National Women’s History Alliance named this year’s theme “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”

For health advocates, that theme carries special weight. Some of the country’s most persistent disparities continue to fall heavily on women of color, especially in pregnancy-related care. New federal data show that 649 women died of maternal causes in the United States in 2024, with an overall maternal mortality rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. But the burden was far from equal: the rate for Black women was 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with 14.2 for White women, 12.1 for Hispanic women and 18.1 for Asian women. The CDC has also said that more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. CDC

Public-health officials say those outcomes are shaped by far more than what happens in a delivery room. The CDC points to differences in quality of care, chronic conditions and social factors such as unstable housing, transportation barriers, food insecurity, violence and economic inequality. Those pressures can make it harder for women to get prenatal care early, return for postpartum care, or have serious warning signs taken seriously. For many Black women, Women’s History Month therefore lands not only as a celebration of achievement, but as a reminder that respectful, timely and equitable care is still unevenly delivered.

The gaps behind the celebration

The disparities do not end with maternal health. Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death for women, and the latest figures suggest the burden could grow. The American Heart Association reported this year that heart disease remains the top killer in the United States and that cardiovascular disease and stroke together accounted for more than a quarter of all U.S. deaths in 2023, the most recent year available. In a separate 2026 scientific statement, the association warned that nearly 6 in 10 women in the United States could have some form of cardiovascular disease within the next 25 years, with some of the steepest projected increases among American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic and multiracial women and girls. “Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women and remains their #1 health risk overall,” Stacey E. Rosen, president of the American Heart Association, said in the report.

Access to insurance remains another fault line. The CDC reported in 2025 that 8.2% of Americans were uninsured in 2024, down from 9.7% in 2020, but the overall improvement masked significant racial and ethnic gaps. Among adults ages 18 to 64, nearly one in four Hispanic adults, or 24.6%, lacked health insurance in 2024. That compared with 10.5% of Black adults, 7.9% of White adults and 5.4% of Asian adults. The same report found that adults living in states that had not expanded Medicaid were almost twice as likely to be uninsured as those in expansion states, underscoring how policy decisions continue to shape who gets timely access to care.

Cancer outcomes show similar patterns. The National Cancer Institute has reported that deaths from uterine cancer have been rising in the United States and are highest among non-Hispanic Black women, who had more than twice the death rate from uterine cancer overall and from aggressive non-endometrioid subtypes compared with other racial and ethnic groups in the study. Taken together with the country’s maternal health and cardiovascular data, those findings point to a broader truth: women’s health disparities are not limited to a single diagnosis or stage of life. They stretch across prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survival.

That is what gives Women’s History Month its urgency in 2026. The month honors the women who built institutions, changed laws, led movements and expanded opportunity. It also raises a practical question about the present: whether the health systems women depend on are becoming more responsive, more affordable and more equitable. The latest public data suggest that progress is real in some areas, but for many women, especially women of color, the promise of a healthier future remains unfinished work.

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