How Inequality Damages Women’s Health in Unexpected Ways

The deeper you look, the more pervasive (and frustrating) its impact becomes

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We reached the moon quite a few years before we made it mandatory to include women — ‘only’ half the world’s population — in clinical trials. Over two decades, to be exact.

After all, for centuries, women were considered as ‘the other’ — inferior, not fully human, ‘deformed’ and ‘mutilated males’ (thanks for those gems, Aristotle) — and so not really worth the trouble of medical professionals. (Or, at least, not the kind of medical professionals who got to shape history instead of being burned at the stake for witchcraft.)

Things have certainly improved since then, that’s true. In 2023, for instance, period products were finally tested using actual blood. But the broader culture of disregard for women’s health remains alive and well. Too often, women and girls are still seen — even by some in the medical field — as unreliable narrators of our own bodies and pain. (Are you sure you’re not imagining it? Have you tried just losing weight?) And there are still not enough clinical trials including women, not enough studies that disaggregate data by sex and gender, and not enough attention — and funding — dedicated to reproductive health and female-specific conditions.