Sexism could put women at higher risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, says study

We already know sexism is bad for women’s paychecks, as women are paid 84% of what men are paid on average. We also know it’s historically been bad for women’s mental health. But now, we’re learning that it could be harmful in ways we hadn’t even realized.

A new study found women born in the most sexist U.S. states experience faster memory decline later in life, compared to women born in the least sexist U.S. states, according to a researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The study measured sexism over six decades, from 1900 to 1960. Each state’s level of structural sexism was calculated based on male-to-female ratios in the labor force, the number of females in state legislatures, poverty rates, and other factors like inequality in resources and power that stem from social policies and societal norms. The state with the highest structural sexism was Mississippi in 1910, and the lowest was Connecticut in 1940, study leader Justina Avila-Rieger told Fast Company.

For women born in those two example cases, the difference between their cognitive decline after age 65 was a staggering 9 years, or nearly a decade.

The findings are particularly important because women are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer’s disease in the U.S. Nearly two-thirds of Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s are women, and women also make up some 60% of Alzheimer’s caregivers, partly due to the fact that women live longer than men, and the risk of developing dementia increases with age.

The study, “Early Life Exposure to Structural Sexism and Late-Life Memory Trajectories Among Black and White Women and Men in the U.S.,” was published Wednesday online in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. It looked at relationships between structural sexism and memory performance among 21,000 people in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project and the Health and Retirement Study, and found the connection was highest among Black women.

The research adds to a growing body of studies looking at the relationship between structural sexism and women’s health. Previous studies found women who endured greater structural sexism in adulthood had higher rates of mortality, increased risk of chronic health conditions, and less accessible and affordable healthcare.