Progress with women's health and well-being is slowing, stalling, or regressing in many world regions. For example, although women's chances of surviving childbirth have improved since 2000, advancement has stagnated over the past few years, such that the 2030 Sustainable Development Target of a maternal mortality ratio of 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is unlikely to be met.

Severe cuts to foreign aid in 2025 have left countries rethinking domestic financing models and identifying new ways to meet elusive national and global goals. Despite the inclusion of gender equality in global compacts such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the machinery of global health remains paradoxically misaligned. Although women composed nearly 70% of the global health workforce in 2021, they held only 25% of senior leadership roles, recalling the maxim, "delivered by women, led by men."

According to the UN Women's 2025 Gender Snapshot report, increasing women's representation and decision-making power can change existing power structures that systematically disempower and deprioritize women's issues, such as access to schooling or health concerns such as endometriosis. Women leaders act as a "polypill" for health systems, improving resource allocation, organizational culture, and innovation. Women's leadership could also boost economic productivity; the World Economic Forum predicts that closing the existing gap in women's health research could add $1 trillion annually to global GDP by 2040 [PDF].

This year's International Women Day deserves an examination of the ways that women leaders are improving the health and well-being of all women worldwide. We applaud their initiative and commitment to change the agenda on women's health and to pioneer a new way forward.

Women in Politics

Political leadership determines the distribution of scarce resources. Women leaders consistently prioritize the social determinants of health, often choosing legislative agendas that favor social welfare over expenditures like defense.

In a 2004 study of India's panchayat (local council) system, women policymakers invested significantly more in drinking water and roads—infrastructure vital for health-care access—than their male counterparts did. Another review of these elected representatives shows that women more frequently intervene in domestic violence and child marriage, addressing the social roots of poor health that men in leadership often overlook. This trend is global: an analysis of 48 African countries from 2000 to 2017 found that as women's parliamentary representation rose, national budgets shifted decisively toward health and education.

Women in health leadership bring essential perspectives to challenges long ignored by hierarchies dominated by men. For decades, menstrual health was relegated to the private sphere globally. Today, it is becoming a global policy priority because leaders such as former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Hungarian public health leader Márta Vargha framed it as an integral sexual and reproductive right.

Research suggests that electing women leaders could lead to improved health outcomes. A global assessment conducted between 1990 and 2020 found that women's political representation correlates with decreases in maternal mortality and better child-health outcomes, particularly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Countries have achieved success through substantive representation: women legislators are more likely to sponsor and pass bills related to sexual and reproductive health rights, which directly impact maternal survival. The introduction of gender quotas in parliaments led to a 9% to 12% decline in maternal mortality, driven by increases in skilled birth attendance and prenatal care utilization. Increasing the proportion of women in national legislatures has been demonstrated to similarly reduce epidemic-related mortality. Women are likelier to prioritize public health and to advocate for investments in health infrastructure.

Although significant structural barriers remain that inhibit women's labor force participation or ascension in careers, the presence of women does fundamentally alter political discourse and output. The Council on Foreign Relations' Women's Power Index indicates that women's leadership promotes cooperative governance and peacemaking, democracy, social welfare, equality, and economic progress. When women make up a critical mass in legislatures—around 30%—they are more likely to achieve those goals in spending and policy agendas, likely by allying with other women.

Women Donors and Investors

The gender composition of investment committees skews the allocation of financial resources for global health innovation. This capital gap can directly contribute to a health gap, where conditions affecting men [PDF] receive disproportionate funding whereas women's health issues are dismissed as niche or unworthy of greater investment.worthy of greater investment.

This thinking pervades funding decisions: Research on women's health received 5% of global research and development funding in 2020; of this, 4% was dedicated to women's cancers and 1% to women-specific health conditions with an emphasis on fertility. Investor funding for research on conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis, despite the high level of clinical need, is so low that these illnesses have been labeled "ghost markets."

In 2024, woman-only founding teams received just 2.3% of global venture capital funding, creating a massive market failure in innovation. A McKinsey analysis shows that between 2019 and 2023, funding for start-up companies focusing on erectile dysfunction (ED) was six times higher than that for endometriosis: $1.24 billion compared to $44 million. This reality comes despite endometriosis affecting 10% of women of reproductive age, around 190 million people, and costing the global economy billions in lost productivity. The market for ED drugs is saturated, whereas the market for endometriosis remains reliant on hormonal suppression or surgery, with no available cure. The founder of Elitone, a pelvic-floor therapy device, noted that investment bias is rooted in a systemic preference for familiar business models and networks that are historically dominated by men.

In response, new funding models are emerging. The Maverick Collective, a community of women philanthropists, funds high-risk reproductive health pilots to lower the risk of financial loss for larger institutional donors. Similarly, the Prysm Initiative mobilizes high-net-worth individuals to fund reproductive health initiatives by making the linkages to investing in reproductive health, producing a spectrum of impact—from delayed childbearing leading to increase in education, to stronger economies, a resilient climate, improved maternal and child health, and greater security. When women control the capital, the definition of "worthy investment" expands.

Women Innovators

The growth of FemTech, technology designed to improve women's health, is altering the status quo for previously overlooked issues that affect women. In the United Kingdom, more than half of these companies are fully founded by women.

Although the majority of FemTech addresses fertility and reproduction, some innovators are expanding their focus to include autoimmune disorders, migraines, and cardiovascular disease—areas where women often experience different symptoms or outcomes than men.

Sustainable and scalable solutions follow when the people experiencing the challenges are the ones designing the technology. However, the growing FemTech industry should take steps to avoid reproducing or amplifying existing social emphases on fertility and reproduction over other pressing issues. Venture capital should identify and work with women founders and provide them funding for research and innovation in overlooked areas such as menopause, endometriosis, and the differential effects of medications on women's bodies.

Preparing the Next Generation of Women Leaders

The transition from women's leadership potential to power requires intentional scaffolding, including creating and sustaining a community of practice for potential women leaders. This movement, exemplified by initiatives like WomenLift Health, recognizes that leadership parity will not occur through passive attrition alone.

By identifying mid-career women and providing them targeted leadership tools, mentorship, and coaching, these programs aim to create a cadre of women leaders equipped to navigate and dismantle existing power structures. A robust pipeline will drive more inclusive and collaborative power-sharing, ensuring that the "missing dose" of leadership is not just a temporary infusion but a permanent feature of the global health architecture.