This blog is the first of a two-part series where we explore what DEI is and how it affects women, and specifically women’s healthcare. As always, we want to equip our readers with knowledge about how to navigate caring for our bodies today, tomorrow, and always.
At FemmePharma, we focus on studying the woman’s life cycle, so let’s take a look at some of the contemporary history in/ex/cluding women in key discussions of health. As we discussed recently, health is made up of different elements. How are we functioning across our individual, social, emotional, mental, cerebral, physical, and sexual spheres of life? As women, for us to receive adequate—appropriate—support for our journeys relies on data that speaks to the expanse of experiences possible in a woman’s body.
What Exactly Is DEI?
The term, DEI, short for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, refers to a framework—a way of thinking, doing, and being that supports initiatives, which prioritize a respect for our human reality. As humans, we inhabit a range of backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, based on our individual and collective histories and presents. When we look at how our unique experiences become part of society’s consciousness, recognizing everyone’s experiences is critical. In other words: to be a functioning whole, we have to be super aware, and respectful of each other’s (many) parts. The DEI concept itself came out of the many social movements of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. This put a spotlight on the unfair treatment of minoritized people.
One way to think of DEI practices is as a litmus test that keeps us in line with the realities of our sisters and brothers. Empathy is paramount to creating social policies that can represent, protect, and teach us all.
Show Me The Data
Until 1993, women were excluded from clinical trials in the U.S. This came from attitudes in the male-dominant 1970s medical field—primarily, that men were the ‘normal’ study population and women’s hormonal makeup made us more complex [than men] to evaluate. Yet, clinical trials, or interventional studies, are key parts of the diagnostic process. In these trials or studies, “participants are assigned to groups that receive one or more intervention/treatment (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes.” The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 directed its body, the NIH [National Institutes of Health], to establish guidelines including women and minorities in the processes of clinical research. Simply put, until the early 1990s, the data used to base health care diagnoses and treatments drew from men’s, not women’s, bodies and experiences.
A major case study
In the 1950s and 1960s, known as the thalidomide tragedy, showed just that. A drug prescribed to treat pregnant women for symptoms of morning sickness resulted in limb birth defects for their babies. It highlights that to prescribe correct treatments, doctors and scientists must use data of those who are affected by the health problem to determine the remedy. Ironically, the result of the thalidomide treatments led the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in 1977 to ban pregnant women, alongside single women, women using contraception, and women whose husbands were vasectomized, from participating in clinical trials. It was a slow process, but we got there—in the 1980s, the NIH introduced policies recommending women’s inclusion in research studies, and Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first woman NIH director, in 1991 created the Women’s Health Initiative to study postmenopausal women.
And, so: clinical trial testing inclusive of all genders—and, other classifications, too, like ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status—are critical for supporting the knowledge and health of our human collective, in our innate diversity.
What Does DEI Look Like, In Medicine?
DEI practices are traditionally found cross-sector, from corporations to educational institutions, not only within the medical field. Remember, in the context of medicine, the goal of incorporating women into clinical trials—an example of a DEI practice—is to benefit the whole. The praxis of DEI is based on the idea that the more we know about and support everyone, the more widely “supportable” our society is, and therefore also, the more likely we are to be more productive and content, individually and together. At corporations, you might see DEI programming offered for employees, and in higher education, present in how students share and shape campus culture.
As related to healthcare, aside from clinical trials, another example of DEI in motion is for medical practices in the U.S. to offer diverse language services. This benefits patients who may not speak English as their primary language and so can still access accurate information about their health and receive the same level of care, in their primary language. Another common area of DEI practice across industries is hiring. As Jayson Johnson, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Business Partnering, and Learning and Development, at Genentech says, “Diversity in the scientific and medical workforce can save lives.” Research shows when medical teams reflect the diversity of their patients, patients have increased access to care, and better health outcomes are reported for people of color and historically underserved populations.
More Recommendations
To keep DEI in mind for health care practices include, first and foremost, keeping an eye on the data. Examine your candidates’ hiring data—are you attracting workers who represent the communities you are serving? Job descriptions using gender-neutral language that emphasize DEI as an important company value, while offering accommodation for candidates who need additional support during the hiring process, shows you walk the talk. Training is available, such as unconscious bias training and cultural competency training, which can support medical staff in better serving patients. It also functions as collective professional development, underscoring a medical practice’s values of keeping diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront when providing medical care.
Caring For Each Other
Structures like DEI can make a significant impact on how we move in the world, both in terms of how we understand the expansiveness of our humanness and also in how we work with, teach, learn from, and serve others. In two weeks, we will release Part II in this series, which will specifically talk about how women can navigate taking care of our health and each other right now. Let us know in the comments if you have anything you would like to see us cover about DEI, women, and health care. And, check out the rest of our blog, in the meantime!