Show Notes
Women’s pain isn’t “mysterious”. Medicine is failing us.
For centuries, women’s symptoms have been misunderstood, minimised or dismissed, from wandering wombs and so-called “hysteria” to modern-day misdiagnosis, mistreatment and delayed care.
Medical science made extraordinary advances in the 20th and 21st centuries, but gender bias remains stubbornly embedded in healthcare, from a body of scientific research based largely on male experience, to a medical culture that can still see women dismissed or even belittled.
An increasing body of testimony shows how dangerous this is for women — particularly First Nations women, women of colour and gender-diverse people — with poorer health outcomes across cardiovascular, neurological, reproductive and autoimmune conditions.
Against this backdrop, studies like Australia’s first-ever Inquiry into Women’s Pain — drawing on the lived experiences of more than 13,000 women, girls, carers, healthcare professionals, peak bodies and researchers — point to the urgent need for reform.
Join this expert panel as they put medical misogyny under the microscope and, crucially, map out what meaningful change could finally look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Ideas at the House
The term “heterofatalism” has gone mainstream, capturing a growing pessimism around straight romance, and it’s influencing everything from dating app use to the quiet rise of celibacy.
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon is an Australian arts trailblazer, but a career in music was not something her family had imagined for her. Growing up in Sydney, Deborah always loved music, but when she experienced Opera for the first time — everything changed.
New Motherhood is a time of overwhelming joy and love — but alongside those experiences, many new mothers also face exhaustion, emotional extremes, anxiety and profound changes in their mental health.
Don’t Ask the Trees for Their Names, a recently published collection of stories, brings together nine Arab-Australian women who have had to start over in a new country, carrying the weight of home and the promise of possibility.
Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. An unlikely icon of French cinema, her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalised through her music and film career. And, of course, this British babe was the inspiration behind one of the world’s most coveted handbags — the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the muse?