Women’s Health Matters: Science, Systems, and Global Change | LSE Event

Why It Matters

Addressing the chronic underinvestment in women’s health unlocks massive economic growth and reduces preventable suffering, making it a critical priority for policymakers, funders, and the private sector.

Key Takeaways

• Closing women's health gap could add $1 trillion to global economy.
• NIH allocates less than 9% of funding to women's health research.
• Endometriosis receives $16M funding versus far higher male-focused investment.
• Menopause and maternal mortality together cost billions in productivity losses.
• Integrating epidemiology, molecular biology, and policy drives women's health improvements.

Summary

The London School of Economics hosted Professor Michelle Williams, a Stanford epidemiologist and former Harvard dean, for its annual Health Policy lecture on International Women’s Day. Williams framed women’s health not merely as a medical issue but as a profound economic and social‑justice challenge, drawing on her extensive research portfolio and affiliations with the World Economic Forum and Novartis Foundation.

She highlighted stark data: closing the global women’s health gap could boost the economy by $1 trillion by 2040, yet NIH funding for women‑focused research remains under 9 % of its budget. Conditions such as endometriosis, menopause, and maternal mortality impose tens of billions of dollars in lost productivity, with endometriosis receiving only $16 million in U.S. research dollars compared to far larger male‑focused allocations. Diagnostic delays average seven to ten years, and venture‑capital investment in women‑specific health technologies lags men’s by a factor of 20‑to‑1.

Williams underscored the systemic nature of these gaps, citing the 20‑to‑1 disparity between basic‑science funding for male versus female sexual‑function research and the amplified inequities across private‑sector R&D. She illustrated how her own work on placental abruption, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia integrates epidemiology, molecular biology, and social‑determinant analysis to generate evidence that can inform policy and clinical guidelines.

The lecture calls for a coordinated overhaul: expanding funding, leveraging real‑world data and AI, and translating discoveries into equitable health policies. Only by aligning scientific innovation with systemic reforms can the projected economic gains and, more importantly, the additional healthy years for women become reality.

Original Description

Join us for the LSE Health and Department of Health Policy Annual Lecture 2026 with Michelle A Williams, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University.

In this lecture Professor Williams will explore how rigorous epidemiological research, innovative data systems, and molecular and digital health tools can advance understanding of women’s health globally. Drawing on her decades of research on reproductive and perinatal outcomes, as well as large-scale studies like the Apple Women’s Health Study, she will highlight how evidence can inform policy, improve population health, and drive meaningful change across health systems worldwide.

Speaker:

Professor Michelle A Williams

Chair:

Professor Andrew Street

#Immigration #Events #London

Full details/attend: https://www.lse.ac.uk/events/womens-health

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