Slaughter Announces Department of Health and Human Services Agrees to Take Action Addressing Gender Bias

Press Release

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-25) announced today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agreed to conduct legally required Title IX compliance reviews to ensure the universities it funds are addressing gender based discrimination within their research programs. This follows Slaughter's call in December for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and three other agencies to take immediate action to identify and address possible gender bias in federal research projects in the STEM fields after a report from the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed a lack of attention to this issue across four federal agencies. Title IX is the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in publically funded research and education.

"Gender bias has devastating impacts on the research being done every day across the United States, and puts our county at risk of missing out on the next great breakthrough that could change history. This decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to finally address possible gender bias in federal research projects will help ensure that taxpayer dollars are funding the best science by the best researchers, regardless of gender. Our nation cannot afford to waste the brainpower of our nation's women," said Rep. Slaughter.

"There are many reasons why NIH's decision to conduct Title IX reviews is important. For federal resources to be provided to investigate important health issues, it is critical that we have a diverse pool of investigators. This is a great first step, and I'm thankful for Representative Slaughter's dedication to helping women in the STEM fields succeed," said Kate Cerulli, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester and Director of the Susan B. Anthony Center.

"Title IX regulations provide critical support to people discriminated against, and it is in everyone's interest to see that these laws are applied uniformly and fairly. HHS's accepting of their legal responsibility to ensure compliance in NIH grantee institutions is a welcome and important step in removing gender bias and discrimination from our scientific labs and classrooms," said Scott Franklin, professor of physics at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Director of its Center for Advancing STEM Teaching, Learning, and Evaluation. "I'm grateful for Representative Slaughter's work in making this a reality."

Multiple studies have confirmed that women in the STEM fields are facing an unacceptable gender bias, which can have devastating impacts on careers and the research being done every day across the United States. Throughout their career track, women in the STEM fields have also been shown to leave the fields at higher rates than their male peers.

In 2013, Slaughter requested the year-long study from the GAO along with her colleagues, Reps. Johnson and DeLauro. The study, released in December, found deficiencies at four federal agencies including the NIH, Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy, and NASA. The study also found that two of the three agencies responsible for $17.1 billion of federal STEM funding--NIH and DOD--fail to conduct legally required Title IX compliance reviews to ensure the universities they fund are addressing gender bias within their research programs.

Slaughter wrote to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, demanding that the agency immediately follow the law and begin Title IX compliance reviews. HHS will now begin conducting those reviews on publically funded research involving NIH grantees.

Slaughter has already requested that the Attorney General revive an interagency task force focused on Title IX gender discrimination issues to better coordinate efforts among the federal agencies involved in STEM grant-making. She has also written to the Secretary of Defense to push for action to address gender bias.

Following these efforts, the Department of Defense began the process for implementing Title IX compliance reviews and changing their data collection practices. NASA is in the process of improving their data collection processes, and the Department of Justice has announced that it will convene quarterly discussions with the agencies in the GAO report to discuss Title IX compliance activities.

The Slaughter-requested study from the GAO will be featured as a must read article as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Forum on Implicit Bias in Peer Review, which takes place on April 28th in Washington, DC. The event will feature a discussion on ways to address unintended biases in science funding and the publishing processes.

As the only microbiologist in Congress, Congresswoman Slaughter has long been a prominent voice for eliminating gender biases and promoting the work of women in the sciences. In 2013, she pushed the GAO to audit six federal agencies in which Yale researchers found evidence of gender discrimination.

In September, Congresswoman Slaughter celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the National Office of Research on Women's Health, an office she helped establish after discovering the disconcerting lack of research on women's health issues at NIH. Rep. Slaughter also allocated the first $500 million in federal funding for breast cancer research at the NIH. In 2013, Congresswoman Slaughter was awarded the "Champion of Science" award by the Science Coalition in honor of her strong commitment to supporting basic scientific research. She was also honored with the "Foremother Award" by the National Center for Health Research in recognition of her central role in taking on the central health and science issues of our time.

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