In this episode of The Boxes Podcast, Heather Evans takes us inside one of the deepest, most damaging systems we live under: the mistreatment and dismissal of women in medicine.

From the medieval roots of “hysteria” to the exclusion of women in research until 1993, we uncover how medical science has too often been built on patriarchal assumptions rather than truth. We look at endometriosis as a powerful case study of neglect—a disease affecting 1 in 10 women worldwide, yet still taking an average of 7–9 years to diagnose—and explore how biases continue today in pain management, menopause research, and even medical coding.

You’ll learn:

• Why women still make up only ~37% of clinical trial participants

• How labels like “WW” (Whining Woman) still haunt patient charts

• Why women are 50% less likely than men to be prescribed pain medication for the same symptoms

• The broader consequences of systemic bias, from medication side effects to surgical outcomes

This episode isn’t just history—it’s a call to action. Together, we can demand better research, better care, and a medical system that sees women as fully human.

If you’ve ever been dismissed, minimized, or mislabeled, this episode is for you.