Conversations with the CTGCA Team: Executive Board Member Dr. Pratima Gupta
CTGCA Executive Board Member Dr. Pratima Gupta explains how her start in politics began with advocating for reproductive health access, why a justice lens is critical in Close the Gap’s work, and more. Dr. Gupta is also a parent, CADEM Women’s Caucus Legislative Chair, a San Diego Democratic County Central Committee Member, and an Emerge CA Alum.
This interview has been edited for brevity. We interviewed members from our team to learn about their roots in the gender equality movement. To learn more about our Interview Series and read other pieces like this, please click here.
When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to do so many things, but the one that stands out is to be a science or biology teacher. I had a lot of inspirational teachers who really loved their jobs and had a profound impact on me. I really wanted to be like them and to have a similar impact on my students. I also was drawn to the evidence and fact based aspect of science from a young age,
How did your community and family influence your passions?
My parents were both physicians who immigrated from India in their mid-20s. I was born in India, but came to the United States when I was just one year old, so I was primarily raised in the United States but still had more of that first generation experience, in terms of my cultural upbringing, experiences, and ways of thought.
My parents were both full-time physicians, and my mother, despite being a full-time physician, still adhered to the traditional gender roles of cooking dinner, sewing our clothes, and the house cleaning. I don’t think I realized at the time, but I didn’t want that to be me. I didn’t want to be a physician, because I saw how stressed my mom was with her work and then had this tremendous amount of responsibility at home as well.
But I was always drawn to life sciences and did a lot of volunteer work from middle school through college around food insecurity and people experiencing homelessness. When I went through university, I saw medicine as the ideal path where I could combine both my interest and strength in science, with giving back to the community, education, and making a difference.
I didn’t get married until I was in my mid 30s, and my parents, and I got so much pressure from people asking me or my parents what was wrong with me. In Indian culture, the family is an extended family unit, so there were probably 10 families my parents were really close to and every weekend we’d get together and rotate houses. The women would cook and then they would serve the men first, then the children and the women would eat last, but they’d have to eat very quickly since they’d need to clear the plates and do all of the dishes. And I didn’t like that aspect of the cultural roles, so I was considered a little bit “rebellious”…for many reasons (some of which are not appropriate for this newsletter).
Were your dreams at all modified, because of limited opportunities for your gender, race, abilities, sexuality, religion, etc.?
Definitely.. It’s an unfortunate reality, but despite women being more than 50% of the population (and even more than 50% in current medical school classes), we are still not seen as the equal sex.
There was a recent New York Times piece that talked about the fact that women menstruate every month, and by definition, are considered weaker because for one week out of the month they can’t work. Even in Spanish, when you have your period you use the word “enfermar”, which means to get sick. So I always try to clarify to my patients that it’s simply reproductive physiology, and having your period is different than being sick. Even for young children, they are very impressionable, and I want to normalize that your period is just part of what happens if you’re female-bodied.
Societal expectations affect you as an individual. And it gives you pause about which field of medicine you want to pursue when you’re in school. Do you want to choose a path that is longer or more demanding, and is that then going to affect your ability to find a partner to have children if that’s something that you want? That’s a constant discussion that’s had amongst medical students and physicians who wonder, “When is a good time to start a family?” or “Is this the right field as a woman?” The right time and the right field is up to the individual. That factor usually doesn’t get incorporated into men’s decision making since they’re not carrying the pregnancy but they’re parenting just as much too.
When was the first time that you became politically active?
My father actually was an obstetrician gynecologist as well, but I kind of shied away from picking that as a specialty. I remember thinking that it wasn’t a quality of life field, but ultimately, I was drawn to it because I’m unapologetically pro-woman and want to support people who identify as women through all different stages of their life.
Recently, I have also gotten involved in sexual and reproductive health advocacy work. Doing this type of advocacy work includes increasing abortion access and contraceptive access and can be somewhat risky, but I have immense privilege, and with it comes immense responsibility. So I am leveraging that responsibility and giving back to the community through my advocacy and my political work.
My foray into political activism was around a proposition in California that was attempting to mandate that teens seeking abortion care would need to obtain parental notification prior to obtaining an abortion. I was dismayed by the fact that most of this initiative is being led by men, and that the data actually shows that most teens do involve their parents or trusted adults in their decision-making. The people who are going to be most impacted by such mandates are youth who are already disenfranchised and struggling. So placing another barrier in front of them was really about decreasing their access and not about improving safety.
I met with legislators, and talked with voters and journalists around the importance of not passing a parental notification, and around the safety and importance of abortion care and reproductive health access. And it was really fun and never something I thought I would be good at or enjoy. Afterward, I was asked multiple times to consider running for office, so I went through the Emerge California training program, and ran for the San Francisco Central Committee in 2016. I served on the San Francisco Central Committee for three and a half years until we moved to San Diego. And I really loved it- growing the party, supporting local Democratic clubs, mentoring interns, and serving as a delegate to the CADEM Convention. I especially enjoyed the public comment and hearing from my constituents about issues that matter to them and their perspective.
What has been your proudest accomplishment?
1.) Winning a seat on the San Francisco Central Committee. I was relatively new to politics, and I was interested in getting a commission appointment. When I talked to some politically involved individuals, one of their suggestions was to run for office, so people will hear your name and your policies and consider you for a commission appointment.
San Francisco has a reputation of being quite an aggressive political climate, and there was a very high bar to qualify for the ballot, like raising a minimum of $20,000. I remember being at an election night party, and I was just floored that I made the cut. It was a testament of what hard work and tenacity can do, and finding and working with a really supportive team.
2.) Doing the “Escape from Alcatraz” triathlon. That was my first triathlon, and it was a challenge I set for myself because I was turning 40 and had a one-and-a-half year-old at the time. I trained like crazy, and it was such a fun race because you meet people from around the world, and I got to participate in the gorgeous background of my home city at the time.
What do you think it will take to achieve Close the Gap’s goal of gender parity in the state legislature by 2028?
One of the reasons I really enjoy working with Close the Gap is because it’s almost like a public health approach, but for politics. In public health, you’re going upstream to identify the root causes of community-based health issues and how to best address them. Close the Gap is, similarly, going upstream to identify, recruit, and support women candidates and changemakers before they launch a run for state legislature. Sometimes the state legislature doesn’t get as much attention and it’s not as sexy, for lack of a better word.
Frankly, your state legislature is one of the most important, if not the most important, policymaking body that affects you as an individual in terms of your day to day activities. Close the Gap can achieve gender parity by elevating the importance of state legislators.
And ultimately I think we need to focus on justice. Justice in so many different forms has caught people’s attention. Be it social justice or reproductive justice, which is more new in my field, or climate justice, I think the focus on justice needs to stay at the forefront of the work Close the Gap does.
What advice do you have for women candidates and those who support them?
We need to normalize the other things that are going on in women’s lives in order for them to want to run for office. When I was running for the Central Committee, people would ask me, “Where are your children?” or “Who’s taking care of your children?” You would never ask a man that. It’s really important for us to dismantle the stereotypes and gender expectations, because otherwise we aren’t going to ever be able to achieve gender parity.
I think mentorship is key for women of color. Women of color all have different experiences. I’ve been asked, “How can you do this to your children?” both when running for office and around providing abortion care. It’s like death by 1000 cuts from the blade that is systemic racism. We have to acknowledge those feelings, and not be dismissive of them because it does affect you. It’s the impact, not the intent.
I live in an upper middle class, primarily Caucasian neighborhood, and my children are mixed race, and quite fair skinned. One day, I had my daughter on my shoulders as we were walking around the neighborhood. An older, white couple waved and benignly asked, “Oh, where do you live?” And when I told them, they asked, “Oh, are you one of those au pairs?” Their intent was to be friendly, but their thought/impact was how could a person of color live in this neighborhood?
We think we’ve moved past this, but we haven’t. We need to acknowledge that- for our Recruits, and for all women candidates. Racism hasn’t gone away and is not going away anytime soon. We need to learn how to address it and keep ourselves safe, and remind ourselves of why we’re doing this work.
Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving equality in California by 2028. Join us!
About Close the Gap California
Close the Gap California (CTGCA) is a statewide campaign launched in 2013 to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTGCA is changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time.
One in every four women in the Legislature is a CTGCA Recruit. Our Recruits are committed to reproductive justice, quality public education, and combatting poverty, and nine of 10 serving today are women of color.
