From Underrepresentation to Inclusion: Women Who Stutter in Research and Practice

Women who stutter have historically received limited analytic attention in stuttering research and clinical practice. Although the higher male-to-female persistence ratio partly shapes sample composition, repeated reliance on male-majority samples has also contributed to a sex-skewed evidence base, limiting insight into women's experiences and clinical needs. Using a biopsychosocial framework, this article identifies key domains for inquiry and proposes a research, clinical, and educational agenda to address the underrepresentation of women who stutter and its implications for evidence generation, care, and professional training.

This agenda-setting viewpoint draws on evidence from stuttering-specific and broader interdisciplinary literature and organizes it within a biopsychosocial framework. It examines how study design, analytic practices, and reporting conventions have shaped the visibility of women in the stuttering evidence base and identifies priorities for research, clinical practice, and professional education.

The analysis identifies a sex-skewed evidence base shaped by male-majority samples and the frequent pooling of data from women and men. Emerging evidence suggests that biological, psychological, social, and communication-related factors may shape women's experiences of stuttering in clinically meaningful ways. Accordingly, this viewpoint identifies three areas for action: (a) strengthen the evidence base through multidimensional research and sex- and gender-informed study design, analysis, and reporting; (b) advance individualized, gender-sensitive clinical care; and (c) integrate sex- and gender-informed content into professional education and development.

Explicitly examining women who stutter as a distinct analytic group can strengthen the scientific foundation of speech-language pathology and enable empirical clarification rather than presupposition. This article aimed to support a more representative, clinically informative, and sex- and gender-informed evidence base regarding women who stutter.