You know the one about doing research on male samples and generalizing the results to women and men. The older among you may remember that whole bruha about Lawrence Kohlberg's1981 work on stages of moral development which was done, of course, with males and, generalized to all. In the 80s and even the early 90s, addiction studies were big on all male samples as well. And studies of heart disease, well they were so bad that in 1990 NIH established the Office of Research on Women's Health, whose mission was to set an agenda for research on women's health and to ensure that women and members of minority groups would be included in clinical research funded by the NIH.

And it worked. Well at least I thought it worked until I read an article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine. Turns out that, at least when it comes to research on exercise, I was wrong.

Yup much of the research that has been done, is based on male samples and applied to women as well as men. And wait, yup, lots of times the results don't transfer. Go figure.

Anyway here's a radical idea-- study women and men and look at similarities and differences. An until that happens, quoting article author Gretchen Reynolds:

female athletes should view with skepticism the results from exercise studies that use only male subjects.

And so should everyone else!