Looking at female icons like Hillary Clinton or at the wide range of occupational opportunities open to women, you might feel tempted to say that women have finally “made it” in terms of gender equality. Unfortunately, new studies have revealed another area in which women are struggling to be properly represented: athletic research.
How uneven is the male/female ratio when it comes to exercise science? What factors have kept women out of scientific studies? And how does this lack of representation hurt women – sometimes fatally? ENTITY is here with the facts, stats and scary stories to show why women’s underrepresentation in athletic research isn’t only sexist – it’s dangerous.
Exactly how low are women’s number when it comes to sports medicine studies? Well, let’s just say that if we were going by these statistics alone, people would be surprised that the world is roughly composed of 50 percent women.
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In May of last year, New York Magazine reported that only one third of all clinical research study participants are women. Researchers have found that underrepresentation is especially common within the field of sports medicine. In 2014, Exercise Physiologist Joe Costello analyzed 1,392 articles published in sports medicine journals, which, all together, featured over six million participants. Out of those six million, only 39 percent of participants were female.
In all sports/exercise research today, women make up only 35% of study subjects. But over 50% of total population. #notok #wfs16 @powereat
— Kourtney Thomas CSCS (@KThomasFitness) August 26, 2016
DYK: women’s #health magazines often frame #exercise in terms of appearance rather than health rewards. #research #science
— Healthy Living (@ChoicesAddUp) July 15, 2016
That number hasn’t improved with time, either. Bethany Brookshire performed a similar analysis in 2015 and discovered that only 42 percent of participants were women. When she focused only on running studies, the results were even worse: despite the fact that women make up 45 percent of marathon finishers (and 58 percent of 5K finishers), only 3 percent of studies’ participants were female.
The truth is, women aren’t just a little underrepresented. They are almost entirely overlooked when it comes to sports exercise studies. Considering that the number of women working out has increased from 46.7 percent in 2001 to 51.3 percent in 2009, information on the effects of exercise on women is more relevant than ever…and more blatantly absent.
So, to put it bluntly, WTF is going on with athletic studies and why don’t they want to include women?
Unfortunately, the answers to that question probably won’t make you feel any better.
Women have historically been underrepresented in studies, whether in testing drugs or, in this case, testing the effects of exercise on the body. After scares like that of thalidomide – a drug that caused serious birth defects when taken by pregnant women – in the 1960s, researchers shied away from using women as test subjects. Because women can get pregnant (yay biology), scientists felt like women were always too “at risk” to include in research.
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Today, the main reason to keep women out of research studies doesn’t have to do with babies, but it does tie back to biology.: women’s menstrual cycle. Recently, University College London PhD student Georgia Bruinvels explored how much menstruation impacted women’s roles in studies. Besides women being barred from studies due to their periods, she discovered that research also often only tests women when their hormone levels are low. This means that there isn’t a lot of research on how the menstrual cycle could impact a female athlete. Perhaps even more troubling, some studies include women on birth control pills without trying to counteract any possible effects.
How Periods Might Affect Women’s Athletic Performance. Research is so inadequate https://t.co/bOBa9z5xmY #womeninsport #MenstruationMatters
— Freda Health (@fredaspeaks) August 31, 2016
Besides the added complexity of hormonal changes, women are also often avoided as research participants because of, well, money. Studies are expensive and, sometimes, simplifying the research population is the only way researchers can stay within their budget. And if they have to choose between men and women? Usually, it’s the women that lose.
Even culture could be to blame for women’s lack of representation. When was the last time you flipped to a major sports channel and saw only female athletes? The truth is, female athletes don’t receive the same media attention or money as males. You may hope that researchers wouldn’t fall for the same headlines and flashing camera lights – but, Bruce Galdden, exercise physiologist and editor in chief of the Journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, admits, “Science unfortunately isn’t immune to those same problems.”
For years, experts have claimed that men can act as “adequate proxies” and therefore represent exercise’s (or drugs’) effects on both men and women. But this is 2017 – and that excuse should no longer be considered acceptable.
A gem from @BraunBarry‘s Research Methods in Sport & Exercise session @sportexercise: women are not ‘men with hormones’ #womeninsport
— Christine Dziedzic (@SportDietitian) December 20, 2016
You may asking: so what? So what if women are underrepresented in athletic studies; aren’t there bigger gender inequalities we should worry about – like the wage gap or difference in male to female Fortune 500 CEOs?
In some ways, you may be right. But while sexist sports medicine studies may not be hurting women’s wallets or occupational dreams, they could actually mean the difference between winning and losing – or even life and death – for female athletes.
READ MORE: Top 5 Female Athletes in the U.S.
Because, despite the fact that men have historically been considered a “blueprint” for humanity that scientists can study and apply to every individual, men and women do show biological differences. Studies have shown that estrogen, a hormone found most prevalently in women, helps improve muscle repair and recovery, and results in women burning more fat (instead of carbohydrates or protein) during exercise.
What do differences like these mean for women’s athletic performance? For instance, let’s consider the case of “carb loading.” Researchers have famously found that even when women increase their carbohydrate intake (as often done before a race), they only load about half as much fuel into their muscles compared to men. Similarly, Dr. Rowlands recently tested the conventional wisdom that eating protein after a workout helps with recovery. While men did perform better with added protein, women showed no added benefits – and some even performed worse than when eating only carbohydrates.
Perhaps the most crucial area in which research needs to improve is on male versus female sports injuries. Some of the most common sports injuries seen in women include ankle sprains, shoulder troubles, knee injuries (especially to the ACL), stress fractures (often in the foot or lower leg), and plantar fasciitis, or small tears along the arch and heel of a person’s foot. Why are these injuries more common in women than men? Right now, science has more theories than answers – and the go-to answer is something along the line of “basic biological differences.” Right now, there are a few studies pointing to programs women can use to avoid these kinds of health problems. However, until more research is done on why these injuries occur in the first place, women athletes may have an even harder time staying healthy enough to excel in their sport – not to mention, simply participate.
Flexible Fitness: Female athletes at higher risk for ACL injury: Research has shown that athletic women… https://t.co/PjD17DWq #muscles
— Lawrence (@lawrencelive) November 15, 2011
Maybe women have trouble managing weight on exercise rec’s because they are excluded from research. https://t.co/QVS03qmlZT
— Keri Layton, ND (@Keri_Layton) June 11, 2016
Beyond including women in more studies, though, science needs to start making women the focus of research. In another recent study, Georgia Bruinvels discovered that 42 percent of women who exercise believe their menstrual cycle negatively impacts their athletic performance. However, because there are so few studies on menstruating females, this myth can’t be proven either way – and women don’t have any research to use to counteract any of the “negative effects” they observe. “Women athletes have to compete at all phases of their menstrual cycles,” Bruinvels explains, “Yet, currently only a snapshot of time is being researched.” Other female-focused topics – like athletic performance during or post pregnancy, have also been largely overlooked.
Women’s #athletic performance improves after #childbirth says @annievernongb on @BBCWorldTonight. More research needed.
— tricia makin (@tricmak) January 21, 2015
Sure, sometimes gender won’t make any difference in a study about a particular exercise. But what if it does? “It is important to show that the general principles of exercise effectiveness are applicable to all populations,” says exercise physiologist Charlotte Jelleyman. “Sometimes it emerges that there are differences, other times less so. But it is still important to know this so that recommendations can be based on relevant evidence.”
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Because the only thing worse than having female athletes having no training plan to follow is for them to follow a wrong training plan that works for men – but, as it turns out, not for women.
It’s impossible to deny that women have come a long way in terms of gender equality. We are no longer just wives or mothers – we are CEOs, actresses, fashion designers, politicians and countless other forms of #womenthatdo.
However, it seems like, when it comes to sports medicine research, women are still struggling to catch up to their male counterparts. We not only deserve to be seen as equally viable research participants – menstrual cycle or not! – but we deserve to know that the results of research studies apply as much to us as the typical 150-pound man.
Women have made it off of the bench and onto the athletic field. Now, it’s time for us to make our way into athletic research studies as well.
