Backbench Business Committee

9 June 2026

Contents updated on 15 Jun 2026

Chair outlines the committee’s role in allocating backbench debates, then Alison Gardner proposes a chamber debate on medical misogyny, highlighting systemic gender bias in research, funding, clinical training and the women’s health strategy, and notes broad cross‑party support while insisting on a Chamber slot rather than Westminster Hall despite the waiting list.

Backbench Business Committee Tue, 9 Jun 2026 House of Commons

00:02 - 00:23

Speaker 2

Welcome to the meeting of the Backbench Business Committee where we'll be considering applications from colleagues for debates in the chamber and in Westminster Hall on a Tuesday and a Thursday. First application we're considering is from Alison Gardner and this is for a debate in the chamber on medical misogyny. Alison, please present your case.

00:23 - 02:33

Speaker 4

Thank you. Whilst women live longer than men, they spend more of their lives in ill health or disability than men with over 1.5 million economically inactive women. I am pleased that medical misogyny has been included in the women's health strategy and acknowledge the excellent report by the Women's Equality Committee report. Despite this, the term medical misogyny is not well understood or defined and a debate would allow the opportunity to clarify the scope and definition of the term and ensure future policy does not have unintended consequences such as reducing women to their reproductive organs or indeed creating resistance or backlash. And I've just discovered as waiting in here that the women's health strategy is not as well funded as the men's health strategy and I think that's a good example of the imbalance that occurs.

It will take significant focus to dismantle decades if not hundreds of years of bias in the system that has caused severe damage to women's lives, health and opportunities. There is, for example, the gender gap in research funding and trials which leads to women's conditions being poorly understood and treated with male-only trials outnumbering female-only trials by 67%. Hence, particularly with historic exclusion of women from medical trials, low focus on women-specific health issues, for example, the biggest killer of women in the UK is coronary heart disease yet only 5.2% of female-specific trials are focused on that and it's only 3.7% of all trials is female-only. And there is also bias within clinical education and training as well as social bias. We do not have a clear understanding of what works and what doesn't work for women.

Hence medical misogyny must continue to be discussed and seen as a systemic whole through rather than individual campaigns and issues and this debate will allow women's voices and stories to be heard thus taking a human-centered approach and emphasizing the need of co-production of policy. And I will just say that I do have the full support 24 government MPs but also the entire backing of the Labour women's PLP behind me who encouraged me to do this and 10 opposition MPs and I stopped asking when I hit the 10 but I know there's a wide amount of interest there as well.

The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers

Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.

The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.

Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.