Research Symposium

BIO

Sydney Nolin is from Bradenton, Florida and is currently an undergraduate student at Florida State University. She is in her second year working on a Bachelor of Science. She is majoring in Biological Science with a minor in Chemistry on a pre-med track. Sydney is an active member of the FSU Honors Program. She is also a part of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at FSU where she is being mentored by Dr. Joseph Gabriel. Dr. Gabriel is an author and historian whose research focuses on the history of public health and medical skepticism. Sydney is conducting a literature review and analysis underneath his guidance that centers on how women’s healthcare has been affected by epistemic injustice throughout American history. Sydney hopes to utilize what she learns about public health to better her understanding of patient-provider interactions for her future career in medicine.

The Female Experience: An American History of Epistemic Injustice

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent gender roles in medicine, specifically women’s healthcare, play in the American history of misdiagnosis by way of epistemic injustice. Epistemic injustice, for the purposes of this study, can be defined as having inadequate communication skills to express experiences or feelings due to a lack of resources for a disadvantaged group. This project will also expand on how these biases impact the public health response and medical skepticism for illnesses today deemed women’s issues such as POTS, Fibromyalgia, and most recently, Long Covid. It will also look at the role that men have played in the diagnosis and treatment of women’s health over time. A literature review was conducted on sources that relate to this topic. Results of the literature review yielded that misdiagnosed diseases and illnesses deemed women's health issues follow a similar pattern throughout history. Women over time have struggled with communicating their issues due to insufficient language to relay their problems and an overall gap in research. They have faced a predisposed prejudice due simply to their gender. These studies suggest a further need for research in women's healthcare and an overall shift in attitude from the public health sphere in relation to gender equality in medicine. This research aims to inform the general public about the importance of equality in healthcare and advocate for reducing imbalance through the understanding of epistemic injustice from both the patient and healthcare provider perspectives.

Keywords: Epistemic Injustice, Women's Healthcare