It takes researchers months to gather information and write proposals. For female researchers, their hard work often leads to nothing.
Extensive cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) across federal agencies and programs are suppressing vital research and information from the public. The lack of critical research in diseases that disproportionately affect women are underfunded and outdated, leading to ineffective treatment for sex-specific conditions.
The National Institute of Health (NIH), for instance, did not accurately represent women in heart disease trials between 2010 and 2017. While 51% of people who die from heart disease are women, they only comprised 38% of all participants, even though they experience different side effects compared to males.
DOGE’s $3 billion cuts in grants to research and education under the pretense of reducing waste disproportionately affect certain populations. The National Center for Health Research said the research cuts make it difficult to analyze factors, including racial bias, health care access, underlying health conditions and socioeconomic status in the medical field.
A January executive order, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” signed by President Donald Trump, targets diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and slashes grants focused on reproductive health, chronic illnesses and vaccine safety for women. It also reinforces systematic barriers in education, career advancement and inequities in the workplace.
Although biological sex influences the effectiveness of medications at physiological, metabolic, hormonal and even cellular levels, women’s bodies have historically been underrepresented. As a result, women were not required to be included in clinical trials until the Food and Drug Administration’s 1993 mandate due to reproductive potential, and sex as a biological variable was not factored into federally funded research until 2016 by the National Institutes of Health.
As DOGE terminates research on diseases that disproportionately affect women — such as Alzheimer’s, autoimmune disorders and mental health challenges like anxiety and depression — decades of progress and innovations vanish.
Furthermore, lifesaving studies on maternal health outcomes were canceled, including research on high blood pressure-related disorders and effects on COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy.
In accordance with recent executive orders, the federal government has removed references to and defunded research on women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community from key health datasets and reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and the National Science Foundation continue to censor data by removing the terms “women,” “trans” and “diversity,” threatening underserved and under-researched groups.
Anne Whitesell, a professor of political science at Miami University with a doctorate of philosophy in both political science and women and gender studies, primarily researches public policy that disproportionately impacts women. She said while her research has not been affected by the current federal funding cuts, those who focus on DEI have been.
“While you are conducting research, you are often looking at differences across groups; so while you may not even be interested in gender specifically, gender is a category we care about in society,” Whitesell said. “On the other hand, if your research is not related to gender, but one of the goals is aimed at increasing women in engineering, for example, your grant application could be denied due to its ties with diversity.”
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Whitesell said the timeline for research is extensive, and when funding grants disappear after years of progress, the disruption can be catastrophic.
Once interrupted, multiyear longitudinal studies are essentially impossible to restart. Once research is defunded, we can’t analyze the problem; if we can’t analyze the problem, we can’t resolve the issue.
Earlier this year, Texas A&M University passed an audit to comply with the new state law banning DEI in public universities. After university leaders received pressure from political officials, Melissa McCoul, a literature professor at Texas A&M, was fired due to her teachings on gender ideology, which are inconsistent with the current administration.
“We are living under S.B. 1, which is confusing for faculty teaching controversial topics,” Whitesell said. “In the public health policy class, I teach unequal access to health care and gender affirming care, which is not outside the scope of the course, but is grounded directly within the discipline.”
Whitesell said some faculty members may be comfortable teaching controversial topics, while others will self-censor data or preemptively decide to omit information due to the potential risk of losing their job.
Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, you must understand and recognize the importance of inclusion in scientific research and education for future progress and evolution.
Maria Buzogany is a junior triple majoring in philosophy, political science and public health. She is an opinion writer for The Miami Student, as well as a member of Associated Student Government, Miami Striders Running Club and the Humanities Student Collective.
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