No More Invisible Women Exhibition
The Women’s Committee of ACT UP NY worked to prevent exclusion of women and minorities from clinical and experimental drug trials. From 1988-1989, the Women’s Committee conducted extensive research to support the cause. The committee dove deep into medical reviews, conducted interviews with women infected with AIDS, doctors who had treated women with AIDS and created a list of the infections specific to women. Their research was organized into three categories and became the basis of future actions. Their work focused on:
- Changing the definition of AIDS to include the symptoms specific to women and injection drug users
- Changing the disability regulations so that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) definition would finally allow infected women and injection drug users to be awarded disability
- Changing the Federal Drug Association’s (FDA) regulations so that women would be admitted to clinical trials
No More Invisible Women, is an exhibition that showcases the incredible work of the Women’s Committee of ACT UP New York. The featured audio and visual recordings are focused on four actions: the Target City Hall action, and actions which met with three governmental institutions: the CDC, the FDA, and the National Institute of Health (NIH). These excerpts of original video footage and audio recordings bring to light the outstanding achievements of the Women’s Committee and celebrates the efforts and activism that helped accomplish a long overdue justice for women with AIDS.
The activists who fought for recognition of women's health issues with regards to AIDS were people of color, women, and PWAs (people with AIDS) working together to get our federal health institutes to prioritize women's health. And it was a difficult, lengthy, and painstaking process, but, in the end, they won.
Source: Maxine Wolfe's "A BRIEF (and not complete) History of Women Focused Actions by ACT UP"