The Fact
In 1985, the U.S. Public Health Service Task Force on Women’s Health Issues concluded that the historical lack of research focused on women’s health had compromised both the quality of health information available to women and the healthcare they received. The National Academies later quoted that conclusion in its review of women’s health research.
What This Means
The research gap was officially recognized more than forty years ago. This is not a problem medicine first discovered in the 2020s.
The date gives us a marker. By 1985, a federal task force had already stated that inadequate research was affecting women’s actual medical care—not merely leaving interesting scientific questions unanswered.
Sources
- National Academies, Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise (2010), summarizing the 1985 Public Health Service Task Force on Women’s Health Issues. https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/12908/chapter/3