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Heather Bowerman talks about gender inequality in medicine and she presents material that emphasizes the wide gap in clinical studies and statistics between treating men and women in healthcare.

One fact that I found interesting was Bowerman tracing back this disregard for women's health or anatomy throughout history back to the ancient Greeks. She uses Hippocrates and Aristotle as examples. Hippocrates ("the father of modern medicine") wrote at length about the belief of a wandering uterus, especially one that was barren, was to be blamed on excessive emotions- like hysteria. According to Hippocrates, he thought that the best remedy for hysteria was rigorous sex. Aristotle believed that a woman was considered to be a "deformed" and or a "mutilated" male while as a whole, women were not factored into his philosophical teachings because of their bad biology. The word "hysteria" comes from the Greek word meaning uterus which was often used to describe and dismiss female illnesses (Bowerman, 2019). This shows just how women and the evolution of their bodies are not considered at all leaving them susceptible to all kinds of dangers health-wise. When women are not factored in clinical studies or research then they are not able to be treated medically for certain illnesses or diseases as there is no data to look at. Women should be held in higher regard in healthcare due to the fact that they give birth to live literally every day since the beginning of humankind.

Another fact highlighted in Bowerman's Ted Talk of significance was that until 1993 women that were or childbearing age were routinely excluded from clinical trials of new drugs until the guidance of the NIH under the leadership of Dr. Bernadine P. Healey, the first woman to lead the NIH (Bowerman, 2019). And Healey's strong insistence that NIH should concern itself with women's health was not broadly supported at the time (Bowerman, 2019). It still seems that the gender gap between women and men in medicine even today is higher than ever with women of color having lower mortality rates than ever because of a lack of care and knowledge as well as gender/racial bias.

Gender inequality continues to have a negative impact on many health outcomes. Gender-related power imbalances contribute to excess female mortality across the life cycle, and harmful gender norms affect men and boys by encouraging risk-taking and limiting health-seeking behaviors.

Heather Bowerman: Gender Inequality in Health. (2019). Heather Bowerman: Gender Inequality in Health | TED Talk. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_bowerman_gender_inequality_in_health