Closing the Women’s Health Gap

Overview

The report addresses the root causes of the women’s health gap (focused on science, data, care delivery and investment) and charts a number of ways forward to close this gap – from incentivizing new financing models to investing in women-centric research and implementing more inclusive health policies.

Addressing the gaps and shortcomings in women’s health could reduce the time women spend in poor health by almost two-thirds. This has the potential to help 3.9 billion women live healthier, higher-quality lives by adding an average of seven days of healthy living for each woman annually, adding up to potentially more than 500 days over a woman’s lifetime. Beyond the societal impacts of healthier women, including more progression in education and intergenerational benefits, improving women’s health could also enable women to participate in the workforce more actively. This would potentially boost the economy by at least $1 trillion annually by 2040. These estimates – while significant – are likely an underestimation given data limitations.