Trish Homan

Three maxims for countering sex essentialism in scientific research - Biology of Sex Differences To explain observed disparities in health outcomes between men and women, sex essentialist approaches assign causal primacy to sex-related biology. In this essay, we present three case studies to illu...

"Three maxims for countering sex essentialism in scientific research" --excellent work, and important insight, from the always amazing @genderscilab.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Hot off the press! See our new paper: “Three maxims for countering sex essentialism in scientific research” in the journal Biology of Sex Differences. We show how sex essentialism distorts research & propose 3 ways to avoid making these mistakes. (1/12) rdcu.be/eNcRM

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

NEW: ProPublica has found multiple cases of women with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

Tierra Walker, a 37-year-old mother, was told by doctors there was no emergency before preeclampsia killed her.

Congrats to CPC Fellow and Assistant Professor of Sociology Lauren Valentino, who was selected for a Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar Fellowship for the 2026-27 academic year!

Research breakthroughs often come through collaborations − attacks on academic freedom threaten this vital work Academic freedom grew strongly after World War II, with greater university funding, protections and autonomy, yet global data now shows a decline.

Great article in the conversation by David Baker et al. on how US crackdown on academic freedom undermines global collaboration and scientific productivity: theconversation.com/research-bre...

Does women’s health need protecting? The administration thinks so. But what does this mean? Evidence-based assessment of first 30 days of changes to womenshealth[dot]gov with @pahoman.bsky.social in @lancetrh-americ.bsky.social

Commentary: Florida’s education commissioner just fired free thought Anastasios Kamoutsas’ removal of a sociology professor from a statewide committee is only the latest government attempt to limit the scope of education.

www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/11/09/c...

Image shows a screenshot of the first page of the article, State-Level Structural Sexism and Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes in the United States, published in Social Science & Medicine

Our new study shows that living in states with higher levels of structural sexism was associated with worse cardiovascular disease outcomes for both men and women, especially for diabetes and stroke.

@pahoman.bsky.social @deborascience.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Rewriting women's health: a content analysis of the Trump administration's revisions to womenshealth.gov In 2025, the Trump administration instituted rapid changes to the data and information available on US government websites. We conducted a content ana…

Turns out Trump's "Defending Women" executive order is not, in fact, about defending women's health. It has led to the removal of of a lot of crucial information about women's health. This just out in a peer reviewed article by Patricia Homan and Susan Short. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In the absence of trustworthy federal health communication, researchers, clinicians, and advocates must fill the gap and get accurate info to the public wherever we can.

Federal health sites must share credible evidence-based info aligned with expert consensus, not politicized messaging that erases or distorts science.

Why it matters:
-U.S. maternal health outcomes are already in crisis.
-Disinformation from federal agencies compounds public mistrust.
-When science is replaced with ideology, population health suffers.

Our analysis shows that womenshealth[dot]gov was repurposed to promote gendered power inequalities and anti-LGBTQ+ narratives, rather than to improve health outcomes.

This shift undermines health for everyone.

In place of evidence-based info, new content promoted biological sex essentialism -- portraying women’s bodies as weak or in need of protection, and trans people as a “threat.”

This isn’t health communication. It’s ideology.

Between Jan-Feb 2025, key evidence-based info on maternal health, reproductive health, and social determinants of health was removed from womenshealth[dot]gov.

No credible health content was added.

Rewriting women's health: a content analysis of the Trump administration's revisions to womenshealth.gov In 2025, the Trump administration instituted rapid changes to the data and information available on US government websites. We conducted a content ana…

New publication with @susanshort.bsky.social in @lancetrh-americ.bsky.social. We analyzed 2025 revisions to womenshealth[dot]gov under the Trump administration -documenting how credible health content was replaced with ideology: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

setting aside Florida's Board of Governors corrosively nefarious intentions behind this move, as someone who typically finishes drafting my syllabi on <the author blushes in shame> the eve of the first day of class, this will haunt my nightmares forever

NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC’s MMWR publication Two institutions are coming together to create an alternative to the CDC’s vaunted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

As trust in the federal government's stewardship of US public health infrastructure plummets, NEJM and CIDRAP are launching a rival publication to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Story by @aniloza.bsky.social

www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/c...

"The science of gender, the history of racism and other legitimate fields of inquiry are being treated as 'thought crimes,' as if Orwell’s satire were state policy. People are losing their jobs for doing their jobs."

Why I Withdrew From My Dream Job At Texas A&M, politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in classrooms.

"The message is clear: Texas A&M does not permit teaching LGBT topics. Politicians, not professors, decide what is taught in Texas classrooms. Anyone who crosses this line may be fired on flimsy pretext"

www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

This US government shutdown is different: what it means for science President Trump’s budget office lays out guidelines for mass lay-offs across the federal government.

“American science, the gold-standard and world-leading science and innovation enterprise, is being destroyed….Congress has a rare moment of leverage to check Trump’s executive overreach and it must stand up and do so.”

- @markhisted.org, NIH neuroscientist

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Structural and Scientific Racism, Science, and Health — Evidence versus Ideology | NEJM The U.S. government has terminated grants funding work it considers to address “DEI,” conflating health equity research with efforts to change the composition and climate of the scientific workforce.

Important new article in NEJM: www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Early dropoff in girls' school sports linked to new gender confirmation forms Province's new requirements are already having impacts on girls' sports in junior high

edmontonjournal.com/news/local-n...

Gender is a scientifically valid construct. Essentially Texas A&M is forcing their instructors to lie about or omit factual scientific information because it is politically inconvenient for them.

I encourage people to watch this video. The selected footage shows the professor doing nothing even slightly out of line, whereas the student misinterprets the law and hopes to impose her religious beliefs on the material.

Administrators caving to this is terrifying.

Gametic Politics Workshop Call for papers for social science and humanities scholars studying eggs, sperm, and gender/sex in the 21st century

***Call for Papers***

Gametic Politics: Eggs, Sperm, and Gender/Sex in the 21st Century

A workshop for early-career researchers organized by Rene Almeling and Sarah Richardson.

April 16-17, 2026
Yale University
New Haven, CT

Details and application form:
www.renealmeling.com/gametic-poli...

A screenshot of the social science website contexts.org shows a photo of a person highlighting the word "racism" in pink in a dictionary and includes the title of the article, "Defining Discrimination Changes Policy Preferences." The byline reads, "By Parker Muzzerall."

Sociology quick-take! "Defining Discrimination Changes Policy Preferences" covers new @amjsoc.bsky.social research by @sociologylauren.bsky.social & @evangelinewarren.com on Americans' racism, sexism, & classism evaluation criteria & how they change opinions on redress contexts.org/articles/def...