EditorialJoanne Koch, right, an architect based in Berkeley, Calif., and her partner, Bryan Connell, outside their renovated 1974 house in Sea Ranch, Calif., designed by the prolific architect William L. Turnbull Jr., on Jan. 8, 2023. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialTaylor Davison, who left her job registering patients at a Providence hospital, uncomfortable with billing practices, at home in Forestville, Calif. on July 22, 2022. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialDr. Arghavan Salles, a surgeon at Stanford, who has written about how she spent her most fertile years in medical training and now struggles with few pregnancy options, in Menlo Park, Calif., May 26, 2020. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialMichele Kastelein at her home on Aug. 7, 2021 in Portola Valley, Calif. Her brother, who is French, cannot attend her son’s wedding this month because of the United States’ pandemic restrictions. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialMichele Kastelein at her home on Aug. 7, 2021 in Portola Valley, Calif. Her brother, who is French, cannot attend her son’s wedding this month because of the United States’ pandemic restrictions. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialVandee Lakthanasuk, right, with her father, Siengther Lakthanasuk, who has asthma, dons a face mask outside their home, which is near a Chevron refinery, in Richmond, Calif., April 10, 2020. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialEmily Winston makes her ideal version of a New York bagel, loosely based on the H & H version she remembers eating as a child, at Boichik Bagels in Berkeley, Calif., on March 3, 2021. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialEmily Baedeker outside her home in Alameda, Calif., Sept. 24, 2020. Baedeker, a hair stylist, used to get migraines when her salon performed a Brazilian Blowout. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialVandee Lakthanasuk and her husband clean their shoes after coming home from work at a grocery store in Richmond, Calif., April 10, 2020. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialThomas Hutchinson, right, helps his mother, Sandi, into a car at Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., March 20, 2020. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)
EditorialThomas Hutchinson, right, helps his mother, Sandi, into a car at Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., March 20, 2020. (Preston Gannaway/The New York Times)