Women Weren’t Required In Clinical Trials Until 1993 — Addressing The Gender Gap In Medicine.
From the study of pharmacology and psychiatry to epidemiology and disease, here’s what the medical gender gap means for us women now
Today, women make up approximately 49 percent of participants involved in medical research trials — a number that legally wasn’t required to exist in the United States before 1993 (1).
You read that right; It wasn’t until the early 90’s that Congress decided to mandate the inclusion of women in research sponsored by the National Institute of Health (NIH). They did this to observe any differences in health outcomes and effects that may result from gender — a key difference that had previously never really been deemed important enough to consider…
“Many clinical trials ran under an unspoken assumption that the only difference between women and men was their sexual and reproductive organs. Women were, in essence, considered small men.”
— Dr. Regine Douthard
