Mary Putnam Jacobi was a physician and researcher in the United States whose work advanced the understanding of women’s health in the late nineteenth century. She held senior positions at institutions such as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary, both located in New York City, New York. At a time when women faced substantial barriers in both healthcare and academia, Jacobi conducted scientific research that challenged widely held misconceptions about women’s physiology, particularly regarding menstruation. By performing laboratory experiments and advocating for vivisection, which is the practice of performing operations on live animals for research purposes, Jacobi played a role in advancing medical techniques that influenced future research. Jacobi’s work not only contributed to a more scientific understanding of women’s biology but also led to greater inclusion of women in medical research and practice.

In 2000, Marcia Killien and colleagues published “Involving Minority and Underrepresented Women in Clinical Trials: The National Centers of Excellence in Women’s Health,” hereafter “Involving Women,” in the Journal of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Medicine. Killien and colleagues address the historical exclusion of women from participation in medical research studies and difficulties in generalizing the results of studies that exclude women. They propose strategies to improve participation of minority and underrepresented women in clinical studies and identify systemic barriers such as mistrust, lack of access, and cultural insensitivity that have historically excluded those populations from clinical trials. The article emphasizes the necessity of inclusive research to ensure that medical advancements benefit all women equitably and suggests strategies to achieve more inclusive clinical research practices.