Sybil Shainwald: Champion of Women's Health
- Alexa Nikolai
- Oct 8, 2025
- 5 min read
Overview
As discussed in previous posts (here and here), there is a long history of underrepresentation of women in drug and medical device trials. In some cases, the lack of testing can have serious consequences, once these products are released onto the market.
One incredible woman who dedicated her life to finding justice for the victims of such incidents was Sybil Shainwald. For the 50 years she spent practicing law, her primary focus was on representing women who had been affected by poorly or insufficiently tested drugs and medical devices. Through her thousands of cases, she helped untold numbers of women receive recognition and compensation and helped raise awareness about the dangers women face when products are insufficiently tested for their target audience.
Sybil Shainwald
Sybil was born in 1928 but did not start down the path toward her legal career immediately. Rather, after graduating from college and getting married, she spent the first half of her career teaching junior high and raising her family. She didn’t start law school until she was 44 years old and took night classes at New York Law School where she was one of seven women in her 169-person class. She had initially hoped to attend law school at Columbia University (where she was receiving a Master’s degree in history) but was rejected, because she would be taking the spot away from a man who might still have a full career in front of him. Little did the admissions department know that she would go on to practice law for 50 years, until her death in 2025 at 96 years old.
Even after graduation, however, Sybil had a difficult time finding a job and was finally able to join a firm (as the only woman) only in an unpaid position. Fortunately, in this role, she was soon assigned to the case that would start her on the path of women’s health advocacy.
I know that I have a few more years of work ahead of me, since my practice consists of suing corporate America on behalf of women, and, sadly enough, I will never lack for business.
- Sybil Shainwald, 2016
Bichler v. Lilly
The case of Bichler v. Lilly centered around the drug diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic estrogen used to prevent miscarriages in pregnant women. Unfortunately, in what is now a familiar story, DES was not thoroughly tested in women. Early trials were performed only in male mice, and early human trials were performed without a control group (find a refresher of the clinical trial process here). Further testing in mice and rats began to produce evidence that DES caused cancers and could cross the placenta and affect the fetus. Despite these results, DES was approved by the FDA in 1947 for use in pregnant women.
Later human testing in the 1950s (unfortunately performed without the subjects’ consent or knowledge) did use a control group but showed no benefits in pregnant women and even some negative side effects. However, by then it was too late: in the 1960s, the children of women who had taken DES while pregnant began developing a rare cancer called clear-cell adenocarcinoma. It turned out that DES interferes with the formation of normal genital tissue during fetal development. By the time the FDA told doctors to stop prescribing DES in 1971, 5-10 million mothers and children had already been exposed to the drug.
Many of the young women, known as “DES daughters”, who had developed these rare cancers and fertility issues began to sue the drug manufacturers. However, since over 300 companies produced DES, it was impossible to prove which manufacturer had produced the drug to which each woman had been exposed.
Fortunately, Sybil became involved in the case of Joyce Bichler, a 25-year-old who had undergone a radical hysterectomy at age 18 to remove her ovaries, fallopian tubes, and two-thirds of her vagina after developing clear-cell adenocarcinoma due to her mother’s use of DES. Bichler was suing Eli Lilly, one of the largest manufacturers of DES, and Sybil was assigned to the team on her case. Bichler’s team argued that all DES manufacturers shared responsibility for the harmful effects of the drug, and it did not matter if Eli Lilly had produced the particular pills taken by Bichler’s mother or not. After four days of jury deliberation, Eli Lilly offered to settle for $100,000. Some members of Bichler’s team advised her to take the settlement, but as Bichler later recalled, Sybil “gave [her] the power and the permission to say ‘We’re not settling’”. After one more day of deliberation, the jury awarded Bichler $500,000 in damages. The decision later held up after appeal.
This landmark case marked the first instance in which drug manufacturers were held liable for the effects on the children whose mothers had taken DES. The case allowed thousands of other women to advance with their suits and set Sybil up to become a “ferocious and dogged advocate for women’s health, and for what she saw as the inequities in the health care system and the irresponsibility of companies that marketed unsafe products for women” (The New York Times).
Other Work
After the Bichler case, Sybil became the go-to lawyer for the DES daughters. However, once she opened her own office in the 1980s, she also expanded her reach to other cases of women being harmed by undertested medical devices, such as subdermal contraceptives or silicone breast implants. One notable example is the Dalkon Shield.
The Dalkon Shield was an intrauterine contraceptive that turned out to cause pelvic infections and infertility. Safety testing in baboons didn’t begin until nine months after marketing of the device began. In that two-year safety study, one in every eight baboons died and 30% suffered uterine perforation, demonstrating how unsafe the device truly was. However, even after the product was pulled from American shelves, it continued to be prescribed in developing nations, and Sybil took many international cases to help women from other countries receive justice.
Later in life, Sybil became chair of the Women’s Health Network and continued to write, testify, and lecture on a wide range of women’s health topics, including obstetrical malpractice, IUDs, unnecessary hysterectomies, hormone therapy, and products liability litigation.
Legacy
Throughout her long career, Sybil fought for thousands of women around the world and helped shine light on harmful testing and product marketing practices. Looking forward, we can honor her legacy by continuing to advance the field of women’s health and fighting to bring greater equity and attention to drug and device testing and development.
Sources
“A Lifetime of Championing Women’s Reproductive Rights.” Veteran Feminists of America, Inc. Veteran Feminists of America, 2019.
“Celebrating Women’s History Month: Sybil Shainwald (‘76).’ New York Law School. New York Law School, 2022.
Green P. “Sybil Shainwald, Lawyer Who Fought for Women’s Health, Dies at 96.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 2025.
“New Fellowship for Oral History.” Columbia Magazine. Columbia University, 2010.
“Passing of Trustee Emerita Sybil Shainwald ‘76.” New York Law School. New York Law School, 2025.
“Sybil Shainwald, lawyer and women’s health activist, 1928-2025.” Financial Times. The Financial Times, 2025.
“Women and Health Research: Ethical and Legal Issues of Including Women in Clinical Studies: Volume 1.” National Library of Medicine. National Library of Medicine, 1994.
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