In the United States, conversations about health care typically center on access to care, insurance coverage, and the pros and cons of socialized medicine, medical and hospital care funded for all citizens by the government. Medicare, a government program established in 1965 funding healthcare for the elderly, the disabled, and people receiving long-term treatment with dialysis, is now a frequent debate topic amongst the Democratic presidential candidates. What is not commonly discussed is the blaring gender gap that exists on the research side of the medical-industrial complex, the multibillion-dollar enterprise consisting of doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and hospital supply and equipment companies. As reported by Andrea Pattillo, there is a massive exclusion of women in healthcare research. Whether you are talking about birth control drugs or HIV medications, much of the science is conducted on male subjects and assumed to apply to women. As explained by Texas Christian University professor Sarah Hill, “Women need to recognize that health care doesn’t understand women yet…A lot of the literature that doctors are relying on is based off research done almost exclusively on men. Our bodies don’t work like men’s bodies.”
A study released by Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that medical research often fails to account for differences in sex, anatomical variances between males and females. For example, women have higher rates of mental illness, abnormal thoughts, behaviors, emotions, or actions that are a threat to the individual or society, and depression than men. The reasons remain largely unknown because there has not been enough research. Additionally, women have been shown to have more adverse and fatal drug reactions than men do. Arguably, this is because so much of the research is done on men and only extrapolated to women. The big gaps in knowledge about women’s bodies are occurring despite the 1993 National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act, which mandates the inclusion of women and minorities in research studies that receive NIH funding.
In our textbook, health is defined as, a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The lack of knowledge and blaring oversights about women’s bodies forces one to consider what health means for women in the 21st century. As the results of the survey on gender discrimination in healthcare indicate, women perceive a difference in how they are treated by the healthcare system. That perception alone should encourage us all to pause and consider the broader issues around medical sociology, the sociological analysis of social interactions, organizations, and systems related to health, illness, and medicine.
This blog post is provided by the co-authors of SociologicalYOU (Fourth Edition), a digital NextGen Introductory Sociology textbook engaging students in critical thinking to “Connect Sociology and YOU!” For more information, contact Support@SociologicalYOU.com.
