Abstract
Women experience a higher burden of chronic mental illness throughout their lives compared with men (World Health Organization [WHO], 2017). In fact, depression is projected to be the largest global burden of disease for women by 2030 (Zhang et al., 2025). However, women’s mental health remains poorly addressed in the U.S. health care system. Conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders, and stress affect women’s psychological health and can contribute to changes in physiological well-being and quality of life. Whereas biological factors such as genetics have long been known to contribute to mental health conditions, a growing body of science also provides evidence of the contributions of intersecting structural and social determinants of health, including social and health policies, systemic racism, discrimination, stigma around mental health diagnoses, and substance use (Kirkbride et al., 2025).