Latest news with #genderdisparity
Associated Press
a day ago
- Science
- Associated Press
California invested millions pushing these careers for women. The results are disappointing
Ten years ago, it seemed everyone was talking about women in science. As the economy improved in the years after the Great Recession, women were slower to return to the workforce, causing alarm, especially in vital fields like computing. State and federal leaders turned their attention to women in science, technology, engineering and math, known by the acronym STEM. Over the next few years, they poured millions of dollars into increasing the number of women pursuing STEM degrees. But the rate of women who attain those degrees has hardly improved, according to an analysis of colleges' data by the Public Policy Institute of California on behalf of CalMatters. 'The unfortunate news is that the numbers haven't changed much at all,' said Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the institute who conducted the analysis of California's four-year colleges using data from the 2009-10 school year and comparing it to the most recent numbers, from 2022-23. The share of women who received a bachelor's degree increased from roughly 19% to about 25% in engineering and from nearly 16% to about 23% in computer science. In math and statistics, the percentage of women who graduate with a degree has gone down in the last five years. 'It's not nothing, but at this pace it would take a very long time to reach parity,' Johnson said. Girls are also underrepresented in certain high school classes, such as AP computer science, and while women make up about 42% of California's workforce, they comprise just a quarter of those working in STEM careers, according to a study by Mount Saint Mary's University. Fewer women were working in math careers in 2023 than in the five or 10 years before that, the study found. 'It's a cultural phenomenon, not a biological phenomenon,' said Mayya Tokman, a professor of applied mathematics at UC Merced. She said underrepresentation is a result of perceptions about women, the quality of their education, and a lack of role models in a given field. Science and technology spurs innovation and economic growth while promoting national security, and these jobs are often lucrative and stable. Gender parity is critical, especially as U.S. science and technology industries struggle to find qualified workers, said Sue Rosser, provost emerita at San Francisco State and a longtime advocate for women in science. 'We need more people in STEM. More people means immigrants, women, people of color as well as white men. There's no point in excluding anyone.' She said that recent cuts by the Trump administration to California's research and education programs will stymie progress in science, technology and engineering — and hurt countless careers, including the women who aspire to join these fields. Over the last eight months, the federal government has made extensive cuts to scientific research at California's universities, affecting work on dementia, vaccines, women's issues and on health problems affecting the LGBTQ+ community. The administration also ended programs that support undergraduate students in science. In June a federal judge ruled that the administration needs to restore some of those grants, but a Supreme Court decision could reverse that ruling. More recently, the administration halted hundreds of grants to UCLA — representing hundreds of millions in research funding — in response to a U.S. Justice Department investigation into allegations of antisemitism. Now the Trump administration is asking for a $1 billion settlement in return for the grants. A California district judge ruled on Tuesday that at least some of those grants need to be restored. 'The cultural conversation has changed' In the past five years, attention has shifted away from women in science. Nonprofit leaders and researchers across the state say that many lawmakers and philanthropists turned away from women in STEM during the COVID-19 pandemic and focused more on racial justice following the police killing of George Floyd. Since 1995, women have been outpacing men in college, and women are now much more likely to attain a bachelor's degree. The unemployment rate for men is higher, too, and men without college degrees are opting out of the labor force at unprecedented rates. On July 30 Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order saying the state needs to do more to address the 'growing crisis of connection and opportunity for men and boys.' It's not a 'zero-sum' game, he wrote: the state can, and should, support everyone. But some state investments for women's education are lagging. In 2018, the Legislature agreed to put $10 million each year into a new initiative, the California Education Learning Laboratory, to 'close equity and achievement gaps,' including the underrepresentation of girls and women in science and technology. But two years later, the state imposed large-scale cuts to the initiative due to the pandemic. As the state faced more fiscal challenges in 2024, lawmakers cut its budget to about half its former size. This year, Newsom proposed cutting the Education Learning Laboratory altogether. After negotiations with the Legislature, Newsom agreed to fund the initiative through next year, at which point it's set to close unless new funding is secured. 'While I think women are faring better in college generally, I would be skeptical that we can say 'mission accomplished' in terms of achieving parity for women in STEM undergraduate degrees,' said Lark Park, the director of the Education Learning Laboratory, which uses public money to provide grants to schools and nonprofits. 'I think we've just gotten distracted and the cultural conversation has changed.' Private and corporate foundations fund numerous nonprofit organizations that support girls and women in STEM, but grant recipients say some money has moved toward other, more popular topics or less controversial ones. 'Funders focus on trends and they're very trendy in how they give,' said Dawn Brown, president of the EmpowHer Institute, which offers education programs to girls and women across Los Angeles County. One of her programs provides a free, five-week summer camp to girls, including a trip to Catalina Island, where they learn about environmental science and climate change. Since Trump took office, some corporate funders have pulled back support for the organization's programs, which may be perceived as supporting 'DEI,' she said. 'The words 'women,' 'girls,' 'climate change' — those are banned words.' Supporting women in math When Chloe Lynn, a rising junior at UC Berkeley and a double major in applied math and management science, started taking higher-level courses, she noticed a trend in her math classes: fewer women. 'I'll be one of three girls in a 30, 40-person class,' she said during an interview at the university's division of equity and inclusion. UC Berkeley has a center dedicated to promoting diversity in STEM, known as Cal NERDS, which features cozy study spots, a high-tech makerspace and various multi-purpose meeting rooms. The center receives much of its funding from the state but has a few grants from the federal government, some of which are currently on hold. On a Thursday last month, Lynn was one of 10 students who came to present their summer research in one of the multi-purpose rooms. More than half of the presenters were women or non-binary, and the rest were part of other underrepresented groups in STEM, including Hispanic, Black and LGBTQ+ students. She stood in front of a large poster, waiting for people to stop by and ask about her work. 'Say you're at an auction, and say there's n bidders and k identical items,' she said as another student approached. Over the next two hours, fellow mathematicians, classmates, friends and family stopped by, listening as she explained her formula for allocating resources in an optimal way. Some understood her work and asked questions about her variables, formulas or 3-D models. The rest nodded in admiration. By the end of the event, many students had abandoned their own posters in order to learn about their friends' research. In her free time, as the vice president of UC Berkeley's undergraduate math association, Lynn has been trying to build this kind of community among other female math majors by organizing events where students can meet each other. Her end goal is graduate school, either in applied math or industrial engineering. Women are also underrepresented in those graduate programs. 'Creating an inclusive and uplifting community is so important for anyone that's underrepresented,' she said after finishing her presentation. How STEM helps people The lack of women in STEM has nothing to do with their abilities. In fact, women who major in STEM at California State University campuses are more likely than men to graduate, according to data from the college system, and in biology, women are overrepresented. Over 64% of biology bachelor's degrees awarded in California during the 2022-23 school year went to women, according to the analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California. Brown said some female alumni of EmpowHer have said that college advisers push biology over other science, engineering or math courses, claiming that it's 'easier.' Better advising could create more parity, she said. Rosser, who trained as a zoologist before becoming a college administrator, said women's shift toward biology was a slow process, beginning in the 1970s. 'Women are particularly attracted to STEM when they can see its usefulness, particularly to help people,' she said. Biology is often 'an entryway to the health care professions,' she added, many of which are predominately female. She recommends that professors promote the application of their research as a way to increase the percentage of women in these fields. In her studies at UC Berkeley, Lynn said she's struggled with the relevance of her research. 'There's a lot going on in the world right now and I feel called to help,' she said. 'Even though I did theory research this summer, I've been thinking about ways to apply this theory to real-world applications I care about.' In particular, she wants her research to help her community in the Bay Area, where she grew up. 'Say you're an architect and you're in charge of reinforcing San Francisco's concrete structures in the event of an earthquake,' she said. 'You want to minimize cost in San Francisco, and that's going to help you choose which building you're going to reinforce.' It's just another resource allocation problem, she said, so it could be solved with a similar formula. 'It does hit close to home,' she said. In fact, the UC Berkeley campus lies on a fault line. ___ This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More men are returning to the office. Here's why that matters for women.
The return to office is in full swing, but you might notice more men around the water cooler. According to the Department of Labor, men are returning to the office in greater numbers than women. In 2024, 29% of employed men reported working from home, down from 34% the previous year. Approximately 36% of women worked from home last year, unchanged from 2023. What's behind these numbers? It's likely a result of return-to-office initiatives in male-dominated industries like tech, Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed, told Yahoo Finance. Women accounted for only about a quarter of computer and mathematical jobs in 2024, according to the data. For some roles, like computer programmers and computer hardware engineers, the share is even lower — 17.8% and 14.3% — respectively. 'Many of these return-to-office efforts are coming at a time when demand for workers in male-dominated industries has weakened, giving employers the upper hand,' Stahle said. As for the unbudging number of women working remotely over that two-year period, there could be an explanation for that finding as well, according to Stahle. Female-dominated fields such as private education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and state and local government have been less affected by return-to-work mandates, he said. 'Many of the jobs in these industries are already in-person roles.' Obstacle for gender equity Whether women are trying to move up or break into fields where office time is required, the trend away from remote arrangements could have far-reaching repercussions for gender equity. Here's why: Nearly 9 in 10 CEOs said in a 2024 survey that they 'will reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises, or promotions.' That could also play out in the gender wage gap that has persisted across industries for decades. Last year, women earned an average of 85% of what men earned, according to Pew Research Center. Will the pay gap get worse if in-office attendance is a prerequisite for pay bumps? "In theory, remote work can be viewed as either a positive or negative amenity: It may offer greater scheduling flexibility, enhancing work-life balance, but it may also limit access to face-to-face mentoring and raise concerns about potential career growth penalties,' said Zoë Cullen, a lead researcher for a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study on remote work. We do know that roughly 8 in 10 CEOs envision a full return to the office in the next three years, and many of those making it mandatory have threatened employees with termination if they fail to follow the company's return-to-office mandate. So far, the types of jobs being hit by these mandates have been well-paying, white-collar roles, Stahle said. 'If a worker can't or chooses not to return to the office and loses their higher-paying job as a result, that will have clear implications for the pay gap and the economy,' he said. The arc of remote work Remote work has been facing into the wind all year. Organizations that describe their workplace environment as remote shrank dramatically between 2024 and 2025, according to a study by Payscale. Despite the pressure, plenty of workers, not just women, are standing their ground on full-blown return-to-office attendance and are willing to take a pay cut to hold on to some flexibility. A majority of job candidates would accept a pay cut to work remotely, according to a new survey by Criteria Corp. On average, employees are willing to accept a 25% pay cut for partly or fully remote roles, according to the NBER study. All that said, the balance of power has shifted. In 2023, when workers had the upper hand in a tight labor market, the odds of being penalized for not coming into the office were low, or in many cases, not realistic for employers, who were well aware that workplace flexibility was one way that they could hang on to and lure skilled workers. Return-to-office demands by many tech-oriented employers, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, hit a fever pitch earlier this year. 'In a softening labor market, employers have more leverage to demand in-office work,' Marc Cenedella, founder of Ladders Inc., a career site for jobs that pay $100,000 or more, told Yahoo Finance. 'The great resignation is over. The great return is upon us.' Sign up for the Mind Your Money weekly newsletter By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Hybrid to the rescue Compromise, however, has inched in. And that playbook can work for many women, who still shoulder a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities for children and aging parents, and need and value flexibility more than men. Flexible work benefits have stabilized enough to suggest a permanent place in employers' benefits, according to a new SHRM Employee Benefits Survey. Overall, hybrid office environments — where attendance is generally three days a week for so-called knowledge workers (not front-line ones) — are the norm now at more than half of companies, followed by traditional office environments at 27%, with remote-first environments making up only 16% of office types, per Payscale data. In fact, while 4 in 10 organizations deployed a return-to-office mandate in recent years, an increasing number have done a bit of soft shoe around the specific requirements and have loosened the rules depending on job type and for those who are top aging population factor Long-term trends in the workforce could ultimately help women gain ground. 'As the baby boomer generation ages and companies grapple with fewer younger workers and our labor market tightens, companies can't afford to overlook any segment of the workforce, especially women,' said Gwenn Rosener, co-founder of recruiting firm FlexProfessionals. Because fewer people are born each year, our workforce is going to start to shrink, and we need workers to make products, provide services, and pay taxes, Bradley Schurman, a demographic strategist, told Yahoo Finance. 'So, as we enter this period of the Super Age, with more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18, this is going to create market conditions that are going to increase the demand for workers of all ages because the supply is so low,' he said. 'Women will be able to negotiate for greater benefits and for greater salaries and more flexibility. And it's not just women, disabled and other marginalized groups will likely benefit too." Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work," and "Never Too Old to Get Rich." Follow her on Bluesky. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More men are returning to the office. Here's why that matters for women.
The return to office is in full swing, but you might notice more men around the water cooler. According to the Department of Labor, men are returning to the office in greater numbers than women. In 2024, 29% of employed men reported working from home, down from 34% the previous year. Approximately 36% of women worked from home last year, unchanged from 2023. What's behind these numbers? It's likely a result of return-to-office initiatives in male-dominated industries like tech, Cory Stahle, senior economist at Indeed, told Yahoo Finance. Women accounted for only about a quarter of computer and mathematical jobs in 2024, according to the data. For some roles, like computer programmers and computer hardware engineers, the share is even lower — 17.8% and 14.3% — respectively. 'Many of these return-to-office efforts are coming at a time when demand for workers in male-dominated industries has weakened, giving employers the upper hand,' Stahle said. As for the unbudging number of women working remotely over that two-year period, there could be an explanation for that finding as well, according to Stahle. Female-dominated fields such as private education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and state and local government have been less affected by return-to-work mandates, he said. 'Many of the jobs in these industries are already in-person roles.' Obstacle for gender equity Whether women are trying to move up or break into fields where office time is required, the trend away from remote arrangements could have far-reaching repercussions for gender equity. Here's why: Nearly 9 in 10 CEOs said in a 2024 survey that they 'will reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with favorable assignments, raises, or promotions.' That could also play out in the gender wage gap that has persisted across industries for decades. Last year, women earned an average of 85% of what men earned, according to Pew Research Center. Will the pay gap get worse if in-office attendance is a prerequisite for pay bumps? "In theory, remote work can be viewed as either a positive or negative amenity: It may offer greater scheduling flexibility, enhancing work-life balance, but it may also limit access to face-to-face mentoring and raise concerns about potential career growth penalties,' said Zoë Cullen, a lead researcher for a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) study on remote work. We do know that roughly 8 in 10 CEOs envision a full return to the office in the next three years, and many of those making it mandatory have threatened employees with termination if they fail to follow the company's return-to-office mandate. So far, the types of jobs being hit by these mandates have been well-paying, white-collar roles, Stahle said. 'If a worker can't or chooses not to return to the office and loses their higher-paying job as a result, that will have clear implications for the pay gap and the economy,' he said. The arc of remote work Remote work has been facing into the wind all year. Organizations that describe their workplace environment as remote shrank dramatically between 2024 and 2025, according to a study by Payscale. Despite the pressure, plenty of workers, not just women, are standing their ground on full-blown return-to-office attendance and are willing to take a pay cut to hold on to some flexibility. A majority of job candidates would accept a pay cut to work remotely, according to a new survey by Criteria Corp. On average, employees are willing to accept a 25% pay cut for partly or fully remote roles, according to the NBER study. All that said, the balance of power has shifted. In 2023, when workers had the upper hand in a tight labor market, the odds of being penalized for not coming into the office were low, or in many cases, not realistic for employers, who were well aware that workplace flexibility was one way that they could hang on to and lure skilled workers. Return-to-office demands by many tech-oriented employers, including Amazon, Google, and Meta, hit a fever pitch earlier this year. 'In a softening labor market, employers have more leverage to demand in-office work,' Marc Cenedella, founder of Ladders Inc., a career site for jobs that pay $100,000 or more, told Yahoo Finance. 'The great resignation is over. The great return is upon us.' Sign up for the Mind Your Money weekly newsletter By subscribing, you are agreeing to Yahoo's Terms and Privacy Policy Hybrid to the rescue Compromise, however, has inched in. And that playbook can work for many women, who still shoulder a disproportionate share of caregiving responsibilities for children and aging parents, and need and value flexibility more than men. Flexible work benefits have stabilized enough to suggest a permanent place in employers' benefits, according to a new SHRM Employee Benefits Survey. Overall, hybrid office environments — where attendance is generally three days a week for so-called knowledge workers (not front-line ones) — are the norm now at more than half of companies, followed by traditional office environments at 27%, with remote-first environments making up only 16% of office types, per Payscale data. In fact, while 4 in 10 organizations deployed a return-to-office mandate in recent years, an increasing number have done a bit of soft shoe around the specific requirements and have loosened the rules depending on job type and for those who are top aging population factor Long-term trends in the workforce could ultimately help women gain ground. 'As the baby boomer generation ages and companies grapple with fewer younger workers and our labor market tightens, companies can't afford to overlook any segment of the workforce, especially women,' said Gwenn Rosener, co-founder of recruiting firm FlexProfessionals. Because fewer people are born each year, our workforce is going to start to shrink, and we need workers to make products, provide services, and pay taxes, Bradley Schurman, a demographic strategist, told Yahoo Finance. 'So, as we enter this period of the Super Age, with more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18, this is going to create market conditions that are going to increase the demand for workers of all ages because the supply is so low,' he said. 'Women will be able to negotiate for greater benefits and for greater salaries and more flexibility. And it's not just women, disabled and other marginalized groups will likely benefit too." Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work," and "Never Too Old to Get Rich." Follow her on Bluesky. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Independent
30-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Why girls are less likely to be put on transplant waiting lists than boys
Academics have found that some children in need of a kidney transplant are facing inequalities in their care. Researchers set out to examine whether inequalities exist in access to kidney transplantation among children in the UK by analysing the UK Renal Registry and NHS Blood and Transplant data between 1996 and 2020. The team at the University of Bristol found that Black children were less likely to be put on the transplant waiting list, as were those from more deprived backgrounds. Girls were also 12 per cent less likely to be put on a transplant waiting list compared to boys. There are currently 137 children aged 17 and under on the kidney transplant waiting list in the UK. Dr Alice James, lead author of the study, said the gender disparity in wait-listing may reflect 'implicit gender biases in clinical decision-making, differences in parental advocacy, or variation in disease presentation and severity between sexes.' 'There may also be social factors influencing clinicians' assumptions about transplant suitability or family engagement in the transplantation process,' she said. 'While evidence is limited in paediatric populations, adult studies suggest that women are often perceived as less suitable candidates due to comorbidities or psychosocial factors— perceptions that may inadvertently extend to female children.' It also found that children from the poorest backgrounds were 33 per cent less likely to be put on the waiting list compared to those from the wealthiest, and Black children were 19 per cent less likely to be put on the waiting list compared to their white peers. Once children are on the waiting list, the disparities related to gender and income appeared to reduce, however, disadvantages for black children persisted. 'We were particularly struck by how early these disparities appear in the transplant process,' Dr James said. 'It's not just about who gets a transplant, but who even gets considered in the first place. 'Those from black ethnic backgrounds face systemic disadvantages even after being placed on the waitlist, including fewer living donor opportunities.' When looking at kidney transplants given by a living donor within two years of being on the waiting list, the odds of getting a transplant are lower among those from poorer backgrounds and children of black or Asian ethnicity, according to the study, which has been presented to the ESOT (European Society for Organ Transplantation) Congress 2025. Dr James added: 'It is notable – and particularly disquieting – that such disparities are evident even in a paediatric population within a universal healthcare system like the NHS. 'The persistent disadvantage faced by children from black ethnic backgrounds even after wait-listing is especially striking, suggesting systemic or cultural barriers that extend beyond access alone.' Fiona Loud, policy director at Kidney Care UK, said the research was 'shocking'. 'More work needs to be done to explore local barriers and raise awareness of the value and importance of living kidney donation through personalised and community education programmes.' Professor Derek Manas, medical director for organ and tissue donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, which is responsible for allocating organs to people on the list, said: 'These results will help hospital clinical teams across the UK to further understand and mitigate this issue. 'NHS Blood and Transplant does not decide which individual patients are added to the transplant waiting list, but we do manage how organs are allocated to patients, and the research found that once patients are on the waiting list, they had equitable access to donations, irrespective of ethnicity or deprivation. 'The transplant community has come a long way in ensuring equity once listed, but this study confirms we all have more to do. 'Kidneys also need to be matched and people from the same ethnicity are more likely to be a match. 'There are currently not enough donors from black and Asian backgrounds and we urge people to show their support for donation on the NHS Organ Donor Register and to tell their families they want to donate.'
Medscape
25-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Shifting the Narrative in Women's Health
Petra Simic, PhD AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands — When it comes to women's health, many people still think of 'breasts, uteruses, and hormones,' Petra Simic, PhD, a medical director at Bupa Health Clinics, said at HLTH Europe 2025 conference. But as clinicians, investors, and advocates made clear at the gathering, it is vastly more than that. The tide is slowly changing, fueled by data, technology, and a growing chorus of women's voices. Yet from diagnostics and research to clinical training and policy, systemic gaps remain. Acknowledging and actively closing these gaps is not just a matter of equality, it's a step toward better health outcomes for everyone, Anna Coates, PhD, a senior gender technical lead at the World Health Organization (WHO), told Medscape Medical News . Here Are Some Numbers The statistics around women's health remain shockingly grim, and their repetition might be a necessary reminder of the scale of the problem. Here are some numbers reported at the conference: Although women live longer than men, they spend 25% of their lives in greater illness and disability than men, which equates to an average of 9 years of poor health. Women are seven times more likely to be discriminated against by a healthcare provider. A woman is three times more likely than a man to be dismissed during a doctor's consultation. For the same disease, it can take a woman four times longer to receive a diagnosis. It takes an average of 6-10 years to diagnose a condition like endometriosis. A woman having a heart attack is seven times more likely to be dismissed and misdiagnosed in the emergency room and twice as likely to die as a result. While women constitute 70% of patients with chronic pain, 80% of pain medication research is conducted on men or male animals. Geography and income drastically alter outcomes. A woman diagnosed with breast cancer in a high-income country like Denmark has a 85%-90% 5-year survival rate. In India, that drops to around 60%, and in Nigeria, it is < 50%. In the US, a woman is now twice as likely to die in childbirth as her own mother was. Only 4% of venture capital investment in healthcare is directed toward women's health. Kristen Cerf Kristen Cerf, president and CEO at Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan (PHP), pointed out that 'these statistics — every single one of them — worsen when talking about women of color.' These issues result in 75 million years of life lost due to poor health or early death annually. Closing the women's health gap could inject $1 trillion into the global economy by 2040. A Societal Problem Reflected in Healthcare These disparities are not solely a healthcare problem. Coates said that healthcare systems reflect broader society. 'If women are not generally valued, then we're going to see that replicated in the health system.' This isn't an external problem for medicine to point to, but rather one that it is an integral part of, she said. 'It's a societal problem, and you are part of that big society problem. So if the health system doesn't change, it's not playing its own role in that bigger societal change.' Moz Siddiqui 'It is a system's failure because mostly men have created that system," said Moz Siddiqui, a senior gender technical lead at the WHO Foundation. This systemic failure requires systemic stimuli to change. 'Systems don't change unless there are external stimuli,' said Cerf. But while moral arguments persist, many panelists agreed that financial and economic arguments are often more potent drivers. 'If the clinical and the patient perspective doesn't move governments, certainly the economics should move governments,' argued Tisha Boatman, who is responsible for external affairs and healthcare access at Siemens Healthineers. When the cost of misdiagnosis, lost productivity, and delayed treatment is quantified, the imperative to invest in women's health becomes undeniable, she said. Sleep: The Overlooked Pillar of Women's Health Tisha Boatman 'Sleep is really a core pillar of health, and it's just as important as nutrition, exercise, and stress resilience,' said Jennifer Kanady, PhD, director of sleep health technology at Samsung Electronics. Yet it is often the first thing to be sacrificed and the last to be addressed in clinical settings. Poor sleep is linked to increased risks for diabetes, heart disease, and dementia, and its patterns change significantly across a woman's life, influenced by menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and menopause. Insomnia, for example, might increase during pregnancy or the menopausal transition, but the causes and treatments might differ significantly depending on which of those phases a woman is in. This is where the diagnostic challenge becomes critical. A woman in perimenopause may visit her doctor complaining of fatigue and poor sleep. 'It might be diagnosed as insomnia, and the pattern is completely different,' said Ines Ramos Barreiras, EMEA regional medical advisor at Bayer. The root cause isn't a primary sleep disorder but a hormonal shift, meaning that a standard prescription for insomnia won't target the problem at its source. 'It's not only a problem of sleep, but how sleep is impacted,' she said. 'In menopause, women can go to sleep, but sleep is not as restoring as it needs to be.' Not a Smaller Man's Heart Cardiovascular disease is another space where a knowledge and awareness gap persists, both in the public domain and among healthcare practitioners. The public may not know the risks — Simic noted that a woman aged 45-65 years is 17 times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than breast cancer — but the more critical gap is often with clinicians. 'We should stop treating the women's heart as a variation of the male heart,' said Michiel Winter, MD, a cardiologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Center who specializes in digital health. 'There's a very distinct difference. Risk factors like hypertension are much more harmful in women than in men, and it also means that they get different heart diseases, and that means different diagnostics and different therapy.' Even as technology advances, these old biases are being coded into new systems. 'Most algorithms are made for more male-specific cardiovascular disease,' Winter noted. For example, because the ST elevation in a female myocardial infarction is often less pronounced, 'the AI [artificial intelligence] algorithm picks up male STEMI (ST-elevation myocardial infarction) much more easily than it does for female.' Similarly, algorithms for interpreting ultrasounds are often better at identifying systolic heart failure (more common in men) than diastolic heart failure (more common in women). The Inevitable Transition Jocalyn Clark For too long, the narrative around menopause has been one of cessation and decline — a silent, private struggle marking the end of a woman's reproductive value. However, panelists at the HLTH Europe 2025 conference made clear that the story is being rewritten forcefully. What was once a taboo topic is now a 'menopause boom,' a global conversation fueled by a new generation of women demanding better information, care, and visibility, said Jocalyn Clark, the international editor at the British Medical Journal . 'When I came out of medical school, women disappeared from view of the health service at the age of 50 because they were postreproductive,' said Dame Lesley Regan, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Imperial College London, London, England, and England's first Women's Health Ambassador. This perspective is dangerously outdated. With increasing lifespans, many women will now spend more of their lives postmenopausal than reproductive, she said. Dame Lesley Regan, MD The health risks that accelerate after menopause, such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, are often overlooked in clinical consultations, often because healthcare professionals lack comprehensive menopause training, Regan said. In the UK, for example, general practitioners are no longer required to complete mandatory training in obstetrics and gynecology. Regan proposed that every healthcare professional — from orthopedic surgeons to cardiologists — should ask their female patients a simple question: 'Do you still have periods?' This, she argued, is a simple but important step to identifying women in the menopausal transition and ensuring their holistic health is considered. A New Narrative Bayo Curry-Winchell, MD The challenges are systemic, rooted in societal norms, and reflected in every corner of the healthcare industry. However, the collaboration between innovators, the commitment from advocates, and the increasing demand from patients are creating momentum, said Bayo Curry-Winchell, MD, a general practitioner in Reno, Nevada, and content creator. The solution lies in changing the narrative, she said. It requires normalizing conversations about menstruation, menopause, and every aspect of women's health. It means designing systems, products, and policies with women at the center. Most importantly, it involves listening to women from diverse backgrounds. As Ramos Barreiras said, there is a cultural expectation for women to be quiet. 'We don't complain. We were taught to be strong and to endure. And this is the shift we are seeking: to empower women to be vocal about what we want and the quality of life we deserve.' Simic is a medical director at Bupa Health Clinics; Cerf is the president and CEO at Blue Shield of California PHP; Boatman is responsible for external affairs and healthcare access at Siemens Healthineers; Kanady is the director of sleep health technology at Samsung Electronics; Ramos Barreiras is a EMEA Regional Medical Advisor at Bayer.
