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While it’s widely known today that treatments such as shock therapy are ineffective and unethical, many don’t realize that there are still discrepancies and insufficient care given within our medical system today.  

I had little knowledge of the Medical Gender Bias issue beforehand, barely knowing that the topic existed at all. Yet the roots of the issue have an iron grip on American society, stemming from the rampant sexism found throughout the country's history.

For decades, studies have neglected to include women in their research, resulting in care and medical treatments that aren't meant for the female anatomy. And biased medical training leaves doctors unequipped to identify many illnesses when found in the female body. Combined with the gender stereotypes that have plagued society for centuries, many physicians, however implicitly, often have difficulty believing women to be "too emotional" and "overly dramatic" when it comes to their medical concerns.

Our Padlet is arranged into columns, beginning with an explanation as to what gender bias and a history of the subject, along with the origins of women's health. The latter having strong ties to the Women’s Rights Movement. 

The topic then moves on to the biggest obstacle facing women who seek medical attention: being heard. Oftentimes, when doctors cannot determine the causation of a woman’s symptoms, if they believe the woman at all, they will dismiss the illness as anxiety, citing the “emotional” stereotype for reasoning. Leaving women to suffer without any help, but also dismissing their struggle entirely. 

To end the Padlet are a few examples of when a lack of care for women created major medical mistakes in treatment.  Such as drug dosing and understanding of female anatomy as a whole. Finally, the last column is a brief mention of other areas of prejudice in the medical world, such as the discrimination female physicians face daily, in the workplace and beyond. Or how clinical trials are still struggling to include gender diversity.

I hope you all find this topic as fascinating and informative as I did. Medical Gender Bias is a particularly urgent issue, when missteps are made, the human cost is high: leaving women in chronic pain or drowning in medical bills, if the error wasn’t fatal to begin with. This is an issue that affects us all, and you can help by educating yourself and others, as well as by supporting researchers investigating the issue by donating to or publicizing their work. 

Thank you and I hope you enjoy!