Medical science has a women problem: for decades, drug trials, diagnostic tools, and clinical standards were calibrated on male bodies and male symptoms. This session traced how that systemic bias plays out — in research funding, in pain management, in dismissed diagnoses, and in how Black and brown women face compounded harm from medical racism and misogyny. The timing was deliberate: in early 2025, a wave of US executive orders was defunding the very research that was starting to close these gaps.
Materials
Main
- A short summary of the history of women as research participants: NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (article · NIH)
- This infographic from Nature on women's health research and funding — what gets studied and what gets left out (infographic · Nature)
- Short articles on how current US politics affects research: banning specific words in research and getting rid of HIV programmes (articles · PEN / Nature)
- To learn more about the violence in gynecology and labour and how often they occur across EU member states: this European Parliament document (PDF · European Parliament)
- To dig deeper into how women of color, and particularly Black women are affected by both medical racism and misogyny: this podcast and this article (podcast + article · YWCA)
- Research paper abstract on how the gender of your doctor influences your health outcomes (paper · JAMA Surgery)
- Resource on how to spot certain conditions on darker skin: blackandbrownskin.co.uk/mindthegap (resource)
Supplementary
- TED Talk on the gender gap in drug development and medicine in general (YouTube)
- A long deep dive into medical misogyny, featuring experiences of trans and non-binary people: YouTube video (YouTube)
Session structure
- The gender health gap — what is it?
- Drugs dosed for male bodies, conditions presenting differently in women
- The history of excluding women from clinical trials (fear of hormonal variability, liability)
- NIH 1993 mandate requiring women's inclusion — and how slowly it has changed practice
- Political context: what the 2025 US rollbacks mean
- HIV programmes terminated, DEI mandates reversed
- Banned words in research: which bodies disappear from trials?
- How research gaps become treatment gaps within years
- Gynecological violence in the EU
- Obstetric violence, episiotomies without consent, painful procedures performed without anaesthesia
- Why women's pain is systematically underestimated
- Race and the health gap
- Black women face compounded harm: medical racism + misogyny
- Maternal mortality rates by race — the data is stark
- Conditions on darker skin: what dermatology training misses
- Does your doctor's gender matter?
- Research suggests women have better outcomes with female surgeons
- What mechanisms explain this?
- What can change?
- Mandatory inclusion of women (and women of colour) in research design
- How to advocate for yourself in a medical setting
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