Nursing is a predominantly female profession, yet sex and gender bias is rife. In a remarkably candid conversation, feminist writer Caroline Criado Perez, author of ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’, tells us how health care and health care research fails women, how changes are needed for women experiencing miscarriage – and what it means when medicine treats the female body as atypical and niche.

We’re also joined by RCN member Leanne Patrick, who works in services for women experiencing gender-based violence and tweets @FeministRCN 

Nursing Matters is presented by PNC chair Rachel Hollis and Alison Leary. Tell us what YOU want us to discuss on the podcast by tweeting @theRCN with the tag #NursingMatters

* “It was shocking to discover that we still treat men’s bodies as the default – which means we constantly fail to diagnose women properly.” – Caroline Criado Perez

* “If we had researched the female immune system more historically we might be in a much better position now to understand what is going on with Long Covid.” – Caroline Criado Perez

* “As a society we tend to believe men more when they tell us they are in pain and women are just  not seen as credible in the same way." – Caroline Criado Perez 

* “We need to shift the power dynamic. Healthcare is done to people, especially women, not with them.” – Alison Leary

Presented by Rachel Hollis. Audio production by Alex Rees. Assistant producer Jelena Sofronijevic. Music: ‘Snappy’ by Jonathan Boyle under licence from premiumbeat.com. Nursing Matters is a Podmasters Production for the RCN. 

https://www.rcn.org.uk

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