Candase Jensen

TCSP2 (2018) Article 4.2 Women shall not be inappropriately excluded from research solely on the basis of gender or sex. Despite increased recognition by researchers, REBs, NGOs, and Government organizations of the need to increase the number of women involved in research as participants, the historical exclusion of women from research persists. This has resulted in data and practices that do not reflect women’s social situations or their medical needs. Both in my experience as a REBA, and reflected in recent literature, it is evident that women continue to be excluded from research. Researchers do not want to be responsible for interfering with pregnancy and continue to argue that women’s baseline stats interfere with results. Rather than working to include women, researchers continue to create exclusionary recruitment plans such as requiring women to take birth control for the length of a project. Motherhood and the idea of the clinical female body are still interfering with health because women are not being included in research as participants. I argue that this exclusion of women from research also happens at the institutional level, and that this has not been widely considered. In my administrative role pre-reviewing research protocols for the REB, I have reviewed multiple studies focusing on gay men or men who have sex with men (MSM). Conversely, I have not seen research focusing on lesbian or queer women. If institutions and REBs are truly applying the TCPS2 and respecting the principle of Justice they must also consider what percentage of research projects include the involvement of women. This study critically examines the extent to which women continue to be excluded as research participants through a critical analysis of relevant policy and literature with a focus on the types of research that are currently being conducted and funded. Keywords: women, exclusion, current research