Jones: Data doesn’t change communities. People do.

Charleston is often seen as a place where opportunity feels within reach — a strong economy, a growing community, access to health care and a high quality of life.

For some, that promise holds true. But for many women and families, that version of Charleston is not the full story.

New data on the status of women and girls in Charleston County reveals something more complicated: even in a place with so many resources, too many people are still navigating systems that make it harder to build stable, healthy lives.

And that disconnect is exactly why these conversations matter.

At the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network (WREN), we believe data should not sit on a shelf. It should push us to ask harder questions about who is being left out and why. Our latest findings show where Charleston is strong and where it is falling short, especially when it comes to maternal health, economic stability, and childcare.

Start with maternal health.

In 2023, 14% of infants in Charleston County were born to mothers who received inadequate prenatal care, and 6% were born to mothers who received late or no care at all. These numbers exist in a county with multiple hospitals and providers, which raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: if care is here, why isn’t it reaching everyone?

Because access is not just about how far something is; it’s about the time it takes, the cost of getting there, the transportation available, the trust people feel, and whether the system was truly designed with their needs at heart.

Economic data tells a similar story.

The median income in Charleston County is $61,311, yet women earn just 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. For Black and Latina women, that gap is even wider. These disparities shape whether families can save or plan for the future.

And even with low unemployment, not everyone is benefiting equally. More than 7% of families live below the poverty line, and many others are working full-time while still struggling to keep up with rising costs.

Housing and food insecurity make that strain even more visible.

Seventeen percent of families in Charleston County experience housing instability. Eleven percent of residents face food insecurity. More than half of school-aged children qualify for free lunch.

In a place known for its growth and prosperity, those numbers should give us pause.

And for many families, child care is where everything comes to a head.

Charleston County has more than 130 child care centers, yet 43% of communities are still considered childcare deserts. Families spend nearly a quarter of their income on care if they can find it at all.

So families are often left making difficult tradeoffs, scaling back work hours, passing up job opportunities, or stepping away from the workforce altogether to care for those they love.

This is a structural challenge that affects the entire community. None of these numbers are accidental. They are the result of policy choices about what we fund, what we prioritize, and who we design systems for. And they can be changed.

We can invest in maternal health and ensure care is truly accessible. We can close wage gaps and support women in the workforce. We can treat childcare as essential infrastructure instead of an individual burden. We can build systems that reflect how people actually live.

But data alone will not get us there.

Numbers can highlight the gaps, but they cannot tell us what it feels like to navigate them. They cannot capture the stress of finding childcare, the fear of delaying care, or the reality of working hard and still falling behind. But people can. That is why the community voice has to be at the center of this work.

Charleston does not need to be spoken for. It needs to be listened to, especially the people who are too often left out of the conversation.

What do these numbers look like in your life? What feels accurate? What is missing? What would real support actually look like? Those are the questions that lead to real solutions.

Because if we want a Charleston that works for everyone, we cannot rely on data alone. We have to listen to the people living it.

WREN invites Charleston County residents to explore the data and share their experiences at press@scwren.org. The future of this community should be shaped by the people who call it home.

Aisha Jones is WREN’s senior partnership and engagement associate. She is based in Columbia, but travels for work across the state.