Closing the women's health data gap could be worth $1 trillion a year

Closing the women's health data and research gap represents one of the most significant untapped opportunities in global healthcare, with the potential to improve outcomes for millions of women and deliver substantial economic and societal returns. That is the central finding emerging from global policy and clinical leadership.

For the American Chamber of Health's members, the women's health data gap is both a moral imperative and a market signal. Women make up roughly 70% of the global healthcare workforce, and the Chamber's ecosystem spans providers, researchers, and innovators working across the full life course of care. A trillion-dollar opportunity built on better data is exactly the kind of system-level shift the Chamber exists to help its members act on.

Global analysis by McKinsey & Company estimates that closing the women's health gap could generate up to US$1 trillion annually by 2040, while reducing an estimated 75 million years of life lost each year due to poor health and early mortality. Despite accounting for around half of the global population and approximately 70% of the global healthcare workforce, women spend 25% more of their lives in ill health than men, reflecting persistent gaps in data, research, and care design.

Kate Lancaster, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), traces many of today's challenges to how evidence has historically been generated and prioritized: "My mission is simple: to improve the health of women and girls across the world by working in partnership with women and with institutions across the world to do so. Women are really struggling to access healthcare systems which have not been built around their needs. These structural disparities shape outcomes across a woman's entire lifespan, and these disparities further deepen when you then apply race, disability and geography to that."

Lancaster noted that women were not formally required to be included in clinical trials in the United States until 1993, following guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many medicines in use today were therefore not adequately tested in women. According to McKinsey & Company, less than 1% of healthcare research and innovation funding is directed toward conditions that primarily affect women outside of cancer, despite women making up roughly half of the global population.

The economic case is equally stark. McKinsey estimates that closing the gap could reduce the equivalent of 75 million years of life lost annually and generate productivity gains equal to 137 million full-time jobs globally. With women accounting for around 70% of the healthcare workforce, investment in women's health is increasingly recognized as critical to the resilience and sustainability of health systems themselves.

At a global level, the World Health Organization's Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health estimates that coordinated investment in women's health and nutrition could deliver a tenfold return, provided action is supported by stable funding, strong governance, and cross-sector collaboration.