why women’s health matters

In an age of "trad wife" content and influencers publicly offering up their right to vote, I think it is wise to begin by remembering where we came from.

As Maya Angelou said,

"If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going."

Historically, women were viewed as second-class citizens—not simply culturally, but legally.

John Winthrop, leader of the Puritans in the 1600s, wrote:

"He (the husband) is her (the wife's) lord, and she is to be subject to him... a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom... and if she shakes off her husband's authority... she is at no rest in her spirit until she takes it up again."

(Horning, 2018)

For centuries, this was not considered radical. It was considered normal.

The freedoms women experience today were neither inevitable nor easily won. They are the result of generations of women refusing to accept that inequality was their natural place.

• 1920 — The 19th Amendment grants American women the right to vote.

• 1968 — The strike by 187 women at Ford's Dagenham factory becomes a catalyst for the UK's Equal Pay Act.

• 1975 — The UK's Sex Discrimination Act makes discrimination based on sex illegal in employment, education, and training. Around this era, women also gained the practical ability to obtain credit in their own names without relying on a husband.

• 1983 — Equal pay protections expand to require equal pay for work of equal value.

• 1991 — Marital rape becomes a criminal offense in the UK.

• 1993 — The NIH Revitalization Act requires the inclusion of women and minorities in federally funded clinical research.

(Rutger University, 2014)

So, what does this have to do with women’s health?

For much of modern medical history, men were treated as the default research subject. Female bodies were viewed as variables—too hormonally complicated, too difficult to study. As a result, countless medical recommendations were built upon evidence gathered primarily from men.

According to Liu, K. A., & Mager, N. A., 2016, women were historically underrepresented in important areas of biomedical research, women of childbearing potential were sometimes explicitly excluded, and sex-specific analysis was often inadequate. The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 was a critical turning point, as women were required to be included in NIH-funded clinical research.

That means, only in the last three decades (only the millennials’ lifetime!) has federal law required women to be meaningfully included in NIH-funded clinical research.

Yet inclusion alone does not erase more than a century of missing data.

According to the National Academies' 2025 assessment of NIH investments in women's health research, only a small fraction of the NIH budget is dedicated specifically to women's health research. The report also identified significant gaps in women's health research and noted that funding remains concentrated in certain disease areas.

This is where I think women have a responsibility—not to turn away from modern medicine, but to become more informed participants in it.

It is our prerogative to assess medical advice with a close eye for detail: not to distrust the medical system, but to understand the deficits in knowledge as they relate to women and to take aligned action toward taking care of ourselves.

Here are a few action steps!

1. Look for the sources.

When assessing an Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube post/video providing medical advice, scroll to the bottom and find the resources. There will be a number or a name, next to portion of the post it supports, find the corresponding number.

Copy & paste this into Google, and find the article.

2. Skim, assess, then read the actual article.

There is a general hierarchy of evidence in evidence-based medicine, although it is important to understand that the appropriate type of evidence depends on the question being asked. Randomized controlled trials provide stronger evidence for questions about treatment efficacy, while observational studies may be more appropriate for certain questions about risk, prognosis, or long-term outcomes. Systematic reviews can synthesize the available evidence, but their quality depends on the quality of the studies they include.

3. Read the Methods section

Who did this study actually assess? Men or women? What age group? How active are they, what co-morbidities do they have? Were outcomes analyzed by sex?

This is not to say that modern medicine is not miraculous, life-saving and beyond helpful. This is to remind women to fact check advice and ensure that it applies to us. Of course, there is advice that will apply to the human body.

It is simply important to be aware:

What are the gaps in research as it relates to men & women?

Were women included in the study, and if so, were the outcomes analyzed by sex?

When should we ask our medical providers more questions, and push back when treatment, advice, or protocols are not working?

If your current treatment plan is not working, consider asking your provider if they or other local clinicians are doing research on your condition or concern.

It is our job now, to understand how far we have come ~ and how careful and intentional we must be to go forward.

References

Horning, N. (2018). The women’s movement and the rise of feminism. Greenhaven Publishing.

Institute of Medicine. (2001). Exploring the biological contributions to human health: Does sex matter? National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10028

Liu, K. A., & Mager, N. A. (2016). Women’s involvement in clinical trials: Historical perspective and future implications. Pharmacy Practice, 14(1), 708. https://doi.org/10.18549/PharmPract.2016.01.708

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2025). A new vision for women’s health research: Transformative change at the National Institutes of Health. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27967

Rutgers University. (n.d.). Women’s suffrage timeline. https://tag.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/suffrage-timeline.pdf

Women’s rights and the rise of feminism. (2019). Multi-Education Journal, 4(5). https://multieducationjournal.com/assets/archives/2019/vol4issue5/4-5-25-880.pdf

Sackett DL, Straus SE, Richardson WS et al. Evidence-based medicine: hot to practice and reach EBM. 2nd Edition. Edinburgh. Churchill Livingstone. (2000).

coming home to yourself

I grew up in a small, quiet town in Northern California.

I spent my early years dreaming ~ I was a quiet, soulful girl & spent a lot of time wishing and wondering and imagining how my life would go.

It took me years to figure out not only how to dream, but how to get there, and then once I achieved what I wanted, I realized ~ it was how I wanted to FEEL that really mattered.

I had reached all of my goals and felt completely disillusioned. Empty. Tired. Small.

Over lunch in a little cafe, tucked away in my neighborhood, discussing ambitions, goals, and what it really felt like to go chase your dreams, my younger brother told me: “Mary, it is never going to be what you imagined. what you imagined is in your head. it is always going to feel different than what you imagine.”

That idea stopped me.

Perhaps what I truly wanted was to feel: free, joyful, connected, deeply safe and whole. The goals, experiences, the career and external markers I had spent my life striving for were never the end in themselves.

The integral part of coming home to myself was realizing that God created me with a voice, talents, unique gifts — and that believing in Him meant believing in the potential He placed in me. I cannot believe in His power & live a halfhearted, fearful life. It is in the believing that I finally began to come home to myself: choosing presence while still pushing towards the next level of my potential.

I have come to understand this as what Ed Mylett calls “blissfully dissatisfied.” Remaining at home in the present, while always reaching for your fullest potential. Not choosing between contentment & ambition but realizing that fulfillment is presence while pursuing potential.

so here I am, writing this first blog post in hopes that my words & future research offer someone else clarity, connection, or the quiet realization of their own inner voice.