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Women’s health is underfunded, undervalued and misunderstood

March 3, 2026

Women’s health is underfunded, undervalued and misunderstood

March 8 is International Women’s Day, and what better way to commemorate this than some cold hard stats to illustrate the shockingly large health gap that exists for half the population? The lack of scientific understanding about women’s bodies holds enormous social and economic implications. Below, MaRS’s Shilpa Sharma, senior manager of health equity innovation, breaks down the problem and offers some possible solutions.

Also, in this week’s newsletter:
Stories from the ecosystem, upcoming events and the hottest jobs this week

Here’s a statistic that might give you a hot flash: Every woman* who lives long enough to go through menopause — and in Canada, that’s most of us — will spend 40 percent of their lives in this critical health stage. Here’s another: 14 percent of women leave the workforce during this phase. Going through menopause also significantly increases a woman’s risk of multiple diseases, including cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s. There’s nothing else like it, in fact; no other natural life stage affects 100 percent of its population for almost half their lifespan.

And yet, in Canada, we spend less than 1 percent of public research funding to understand it.

It’s infuriating and illogical. Women make up about 51 percent of the population, and they spend more time in poorer health, which has deep economic and social impacts on communities, families and the country’s productivity. But women’s health remains underfunded, undervalued and misunderstood at a fundamental level.

What could health innovation look like in such an inequitable landscape? How and where can we make a difference? The truth is, we can’t create better models of care and more efficient tools if we only have a rudimentary understanding of women’s health. And if we don’t understand the unique biological and social risk factors that women face, it will be even harder to unlock opportunities in precision medicine and building lifesaving therapies.

To begin with, we need to identify the key factors that created this problem:

  1. Structural exclusion: The healthcare system was not designed for women, but there’s also exclusion in education (lack of a pipeline for women in STEM entrepreneurship) and innovation ecosystems (from what’s funded to who gets to create and design).
  2. Women are treated as a monolith: There’s a lack of diversity in health data and solution-building.
  3. Underinvestment: There’s a dearth of funding across the commercialization journey from research to market.
  4. Weak translation pathways: It can take anywhere from 10 to 20 years for innovative science to reach patients.

What this set of challenges tells us is that the solution isn’t simply about new products or programs. A real solution means placing human dignity at the forefront of our efforts and recognizing that the health of all women is valuable. Truly sustainable and impactful change in women’s health requires a systems-level ecosystem transformation. We need:

  1. New funding models that reward research translation and commercialization, unlock catalytic capital, value social return on investment models and recognize the shifting priorities of women investors.
  2. New networks that provide accessible and diverse clinical trials. Plus, in order to apply an intersectional lens on data collection and analysis, we need to convene and unite diverse stakeholders.
  3. New adoption and validation pathways to strengthen connectivity among scientists, clinicians and investors.

In late February, 200 women’s health leaders gathered in Ottawa to discuss how to advance a national framework for women’s health in Canada. It’s a significant milestone, and recognition that, while change may be slow, it is underway. Fury is an option — and, by all means, please be furious on behalf of yourself and all the women in your life — but fury that is channelled into curiosity and pragmatic ecosystem building will allow us to chart a path forward. — Shilpa Sharma

* “Woman” and “women” may refer to either biological and/or social factors. Both play a role in women’s health equity.

Stories from the ecosystem

CLEANTECH: Toronto Life rounds up 20 homegrown inventions that are changing the world, featuring MaRS-supported ventures Intrepid Labs, Tinybox Systems, Jule, Tenomix, Xatoms, LUCID, Evoco, Trexo Robotics, Iris, New School Foods, AmacaThera and Alt-Pro Advantage.

MEDTECH: Jaundice can go undiagnosed in infants with darker skin. Corvita Medical is working to fix that.

BIOTECH: U of T joins forces with BioLabs to launch Toronto’s largest wet-lab incubator and co-working space.

HEALTH: UHN CEO Kevin Smith has a plan to fix hospitals — even with a dangerous shortage of money.

CONSTRUCTION: Tinybox Systems brings its modular housing solution to Canada’s North.

ENERGY: How Kitchener’s CoeusAI is boosting sovereignty by unlocking the potential in renewables.

Solve for X: When it comes to water, can the textile industry clean up its act?

In the latest episode of the pod, Manjula Selvarajah talks with Macarena Cataldo, co-founder and CEO of Viridis, about the textile industry’s role in the global water crisis, how her technology could make an enormous difference and her recent pilot project with H&M in Bangladesh.

Upcoming events

For more, visit our events page

Careers: The hottest jobs in tech this week

For more, visit our jobs page

In the queue: What we’re reading, watching and listening to at MaRS

This week, TMU professor Natasha Rajah, who leads the university’s Brain Health Equity Aging & Memory Lab (and will be speaking at Impact Health next month), shares her picks.

  • A fascinating guide to the mechanics of memory: “I had the pleasure of reading Lisa Genova’s Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting prior to interviewing her and Dr. Samir Sinha at the 2025 Women’s Brain Health Summit. This book nicely describes how aging and dementia affect memory, particularly episodic memory. It’s very accessible and a great introduction.”
  • A podcast that remedies a medical gap: “Women’s health is underfunded and under-studied. (MIS)Treated, hosted by the amazing Nam Kiwanuka, tackles many topics that are important in women’s health but have received little attention. Highly educational.”

Thanks for reading! See you in two weeks.

Main image source: iStock

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