New Books and Women Researching Science!

We have all probably guessed that science is biased against women, but I never realized how truly bad it was until I read Saini’s book. For centuries, scientists have viewed women as the “inferior sex,” and this perspective caused them to come up with a lot of ridiculous scientific theories about women’s bodies. I don’t think any of us will be able to forget that men used to think that women’s uterus roamed their bodies. Saini also dives into scientific research and how using men as the “default test subject” has harmed women over and over through the years. There’s a section about how drug companies exclusively used men when testing new medications, meaning they had no data on how their drug might affect women’s bodies. Admittedly, I rage read this book as I learned more ghastly facts about these ridiculous men. But Saini also leaves us with hope, discussing how more women are entering scientific fields and changing the way that science understands and studies women.

When Abby Norman starts having intense pelvic pain, she’s quickly diagnosed with endometriosis. But even with a diagnosis, her doctors don’t understand why she’s still having intense symptoms. So Norman begins to research her own condition, asking her doctors to consider the research she finds. As Norman shares her experience, she also presents readers with her research, describing the findings she’s discovered while researching endometriosis. Despite the condition being fairly common, doctors still know very little about endometriosis and there’s never enough funding to research to learn more about the disease. As someone who also has had very similar experiences, I deeply connected with this book. Far too often, women are forced to do their own research. We have to visit doctor after doctor, hoping to find that one physician who treats us like human beings, not just problems to be fixed.