femtech:brief #13: Women of color and femtech
👋🏽👋🏽 Hello and welcome to the 13th edition of femtech:brief. Femtech solutions are groundbreaking due not only to the high quality tools, app, and services developed, but also because they are targeting an important sector of the population that has gone unacknowledged for too long, women. If women in general are usually the object of underrepresentation and underestimation, specific groups among them, such as women of color, have seen such treatment magnified.
Often forgotten and misunderstood, women of color have suffered the consequences of whole industries not understanding us nor the issues that we experience and that are particular to us.
In this issue we will explore femtech solutions tailored to women of color (WOC), startups led by WOC, and trends that will make us feel more cared-for in the future.
👩🏿💻 Startups to watch
Mae offers pregnancy and postpartum support, tailored to the needs of Black women. According to Mae Pregnant people in the United States are facing "life-threatening inequities" in their health. Mae offers a weekly pregnancy tracker with weekly self check-ins and symptom awareness.
Twentyeight Health is a team of doctors, public health experts, designers, engineers and builders committed to changing the face of healthcare, particularly for underserved communities. Whoever you are, whatever your story -- your health is important to us. All gender identities, sexualities, & pronouns are celebrated at Twentyeight Health. Twentyeight Health recently expanded its services in Spanish to help women who struggle with the cost of birth control.
👩🏾 WOC Founders
Melissa Hanna is the co-founder of Mahmee, an integrated care delivery platform for maternal & infant health providing support from pregnancy to baby's first birthday.
Bloomi was co-founded and is led by Rebecca, a nationally respected Sexologist, who was inspired to start Bloomi after studying sexual wellness at UC Berkeley. Growing up Latinx, she rarely had conversations about sex and intimacy which led to confusion, lack of confidence and poor product decisions. After thousands of sessions with clients, she launched Bloomi to be a destination for expert-approved intimate care products and sexual wellness education.
Founded by Crystal Etienne in 2015 and formerly known as PantyProp, Ruby Love is an apparel company rooted in the belief that periods should never stop women from doing, being and going. She developed a smart, intuitive, patent-pending technology that offers maximum absorption, protection against leaks and stains, peace of mind, and complete discretion, so period days can be like every other day.
💡 Did you know?
Today, Black women are 3 times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women. Black women are twice as likely to experience a pregnancy-related complication. They are 49% more likely to give birth prematurely, which impacts the health of their children.
👁️ Bonus Read
What Is Imposter Syndrome?
Imposter syndrome affects 82% of the population, yet it is not a topic that we discuss openly and extensively. "What if I don't deserve to be here?” Imposter syndrome often starts in childhood. Traditionally, girls have been raised to safely occupy space in a boy's risk-taking world, which, in a way, grooms them for imposter syndrome. Girls and women who belong to minority groups are more affected by it.
Read more about it here, and see how even extremely successful women such as Serena Williams have suffered from it.
That’s all for this week’s edition. We hope you enjoyed your read.