In her political guidelines Ursula von Der Leyen has reaffirmed that gender equality will be one of the key priorities of the current mandate, announcing a
Gender Equality Strategy for post-2025 and the release of a
Roadmap for Women’s rights on March 7th, 2025.1 The rise of the radical-right across the world and in the EU threatens gender equality policies and is consequently likely to affect women’s health initiatives and their funding. The current geopolitical context heightens the urgency of prioritising women's health and presents an opportunity for the EU to demonstrate leadership in a world where gender equality faces increasing threats of erosion.
Gender dipartites continue to prevail throughout health ecosystem across the EU and globally, c, more limitations in daily activities and higher illness-related mortality rates compared to men (e.g. for cardiovascular or chronic conditions). The manifestation of these inequalities does not only concern individual health sectors or member states but is clearly systematic. Among other issues, healthcare systems still struggle to understand how certain illnesses specifically affect female patients.
Clinical data has historically been based on male patients, and a significant research gap and medical bias persists today in research, with women still underrepresented in clinical trials, leading to misdiagnoses and inadequate treatments. Moreover, the links between gender and health are largely absent from the academic curricula of both primary and secondary health carers. Changing this course of action is complicated by the fact that even though women are accounting for 78% of the healthcare workforce 2 and being the main providers of care, they remain a minority among decision-makers and leadership positions in the health sector. Some of the obstacles women face in receiving medical support - such as diagnostic biases, stigma, and discrimination - have long existed but remain unresolved. Other disparities include those related to the dipropionate economic burden felt by women in specific disease areas. Finally, the nexus between women’s health, investment, and innovation – particularly in emerging sectors like FemTech - has yet to be consistently explored.
This context makes the beginning of the 2024-2029 Mandate a particularly favourable moment to
launch a project on women’s health with the aim of formulating policy recommendations to address sex and gender health inequalities
The project includes the following deliverables:
- Public event held on March 19
- Closed door roundtable
- Policy paper