Catalyze August 2022

CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 2
THE ECONOMIC
IMPACTS OF
WOMEN'S
HEALTH
I saw what was happening in the landscape and in the scientific
community in particular and I asked, "What is more important than our
health?" So for example, the OCD's latest report showed that women are
underrepresented in research careers (and to its credit, the OCD now has an
office of sex and gender research). However, across OCD's 36 member
countries, women comprise only around 40% of all researchers and they
are considered to be less likely to be in leadership positions. So I launched
WHAM, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization to increase the awareness of
and accelerate funding for women's health research because women's
health is a societal and economic issue that none of us can afford to ignore.
And although women drive the economy and make the majority of
healthcare decisions across the globe, women are still an under studied
species and continue to be underrepresented in vital health research. How's
that possible? As a business leader, I tend to look at problems with
economics in mind, and I believe that change starts with data. And so it
became apparent to me that we lacked evidence. We lacked data about
the economic costs, benefits, and social impacts of lack of attention to sex
and gender and health research. And that the medical research gender gap
is a major obstacle to not only achieving equity in healthcare, but to
advancing the health and wellbeing of women around the world. As
women globally drive the economy, that gap is holding us all back, which is
why we're grateful that Ideagen is helping us bring this conversation to
light.