The Dangers of Sex Discrimination and Excluding Women from Medical Research

Sex discrimination has been a social problem for over 100 years. During this time, women have fought to gain their independence and have their voices heard. There are many different areas that have discriminated against women, trying to keep them out. Perhaps the most dangerous area that has tried to keep women out is medical research.

Medical studies often exclude women. "The implications of the studies for women's health received little attention" (p. 282). "In response to criticisms that women had been excluded from research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIH set up the Office of Research on Women's Health in 1990" (p. 282).

Excluding women from medical studies can be dangerous. Scientists will not know what affects certain drugs or procedures will have on women. There are many differences between men and women that it is not enough to conduct studies on men and say that the experimental drug or treatment will work for everyone. "A 1981 article documented women's underrepresentation in drug trials" (Johnson, 1994). By excluding women from these studies, scientists are putting women at risk for side effects that never came up in studies because only men were included.

There are many diseases that affect only women. If women are not included in medical studies, treatments for these diseases are either not being established or are being tested only on men, which will not show how they will affect treatment of a women's disease. Failure to conduct sufficient research on conditions that affect women may result in sufficient gaps in knowledge and in health services for women (Weisman, 1994).