91
I inherited. I feel more connected to other
women, and I often have deeply personal conver-
sations with strangers about health and family.
People also ask how I feel about the physi-
cal scars I carry. I think our scars remind us
of what we have overcome. They are part of
what makes each of us unique. That diversity
is one of the things that is most beautiful about
human existence.
The hardest scars to bear are often invis-
ible, the scars in the mind. All the patients I
met at the Institut Curie said the care and sup-
port of their loved ones was the most impor-
tant factor in their ability to cope with their
illness. And here the picture is troubling glob-
ally, particularly for women.
Women are the largest group of people af-
fected by post traumatic stress disorder, accord-
ing to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Unipolar depression is twice as common in
women as in men worldwide. More women
than men are affected by anxiety, psycholog-
ical distress, sexual violence and domestic
violence. And more than half of the women
killed worldwide died at the hands of a partner
or family member, according to the latest sta-
tistics. Factors that account for women’s poor
mental health, according to the WHO, include
discrimination, overwork, poverty, malnutri-
tion, low social status and unremitting respon-
sibility for the care of others.
So I have learned that when it comes to
women’s health, medical advances are only
one part of the picture. Mental and emotional
health, and physical safety, are just as impor-
tant. Without that there may be a false sense
that a woman is being cared for, when in fact
she is falling apart because of other pressures in
her life that receive no attention at all. I under-
stand now that we often focus on the specific
cancer or illness affecting a particular woman,
but miss the bigger diagnosis: her family situ-
ation, her safety and whether she is carrying
stress that is undermining her health and mak-
ing her days much more difficult.
No person should feel a level of worry and
pressure that affects their health. But so many
do. And it should not take someone getting sick
to realize that caring for them and not harming
them is necessary.
My mother seemed peaceful when she first
knew she had cancer. I now see that in part
it was because after many years of stress and
struggle, people were forced to be gentle to
her. During the highest years of stress in my
own life, I developed high blood pressure and
needed to be treated for hypertension.
When we speak of women’s equality, it is
often in terms of rights withheld, that ought
to be given to us collectively. Increasingly
I see it in terms of behavior that needs to
stop. Stop turning a blind eye to the abuse of
women. Stop blocking the ability of girls to
get an education or access health care. Stop
forcing them to marry a person you have cho-
sen for them, especially when they are still
children. Help young girls know their value.
Help keep women you know safe. And be-
fore a woman is in the hospital, dying, and
that reality is written on a diagnosis sheet,
look into her eyes and consider the life she
is living and how it might be with less stress.
All medical discoveries that extend our lives
are welcome. But the bodies we are hoping to
heal also need to be respected and spared pre-
ventable harm. Only if we feel safe and cared
for are any of us able to reach our full potential.Jolie, a TIME contributing editor, is an Acad-
emy Award–winning actor and special envoy
of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees1 in 400
People in the U.S. who
have a BRCA1 or BRCA2
gene mutation