Half of Kern County’s population is female, but women here are far more than “just girls.” They are teachers, college graduates, nurses — and local leaders pushing for progress. A new report from the Women’s and Girls’ Fund highlights both the advances and ongoing challenges facing women in Kern County.
Christina Bynum, Vice Chair of the Women’s and Girls’ Fund, says while women are making gains, there is still work to do.
“With all the progress we do make there’s still so much work to be done. So, even as women’s wages are going up, women are still making less money per dollar than men,” Bynum said.
Bynum says women in Kern County also face health and safety challenges. Death rates from diabetes and heart disease are higher among women, and while breast cancer is more common among all women, Black women have the highest mortality rates.
However Bynum says, women are also excelling in education, with 21% of women having a 4 year degree and with 42% of high school girls graduating meeting UC or CSU requirements, leading to other local victories.
“We’re seeing a decrease in teen pregnancy, which was something that was also of interest because we noticed as women have more access to education, it affects just their daily decisions,” Bynum said.
Chair of the Women’s and Girls Fund Dayna Nichols says the report comes out once every five years, this is now the third one to be published.
Nichols says the idea is for non profits to read the information and then add or change the resources they provide to better align with community needs. The fund will then provide grants to help non profits do just that.
“In the very beginning domestic violence was a big issue and so I know that there were organizations here in town that had grants that were focused specifically on that,” Nichols said.
As a result, Nichols says they’ve seen a decrease in domestic violence calls since 2021.
Bynum says this year, they’ve reached their goal of being able to provide at least $100,000 in grants and are excited to see the change for local women.
“We realize that we have a limitation for what we know but we understand from the data that there is a need and here is a group willing to jump in and fill that need,” Bynum said.
Applications are now open for the Fund’s next grant cycle — part of its effort to turn these findings into real action for women and girls in Kern County. Click here for more information.
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