Who Are We?
The Women’s Health Research Cluster is an international multidisciplinary network of researchers, clinicians, community partners and trainees that work together to advance the health outcomes of girls and women worldwide. Throughout our platforms, we use the terms female/male to indicate biological sex, and we use women/men to encompass the terms sex and gender.
Our Purpose
We believe that health should be equitable. Therefore, we exist so women and girls can live equitably healthy lives across their lifespan.
Our Vision
To achieve sex-and-gender health equity.
Our Mission
We mobilize a multidisciplinary network of researchers and stakeholders to promote, expand, and catalyse impactful women’s health research.
Our Values
Inclusivity
To intentionally and actively address inequities in power while building a diverse community and allowing our work to be driven by that community.
Compassion
To have concern for the suffering of others and to respond with thoughtful and supportive action alongside them.
Respect
To recognize and honour human dignity and self-determination.
Knowledge
To pursue the responsible search for truth and embed that truth as the foundation of our work.
Integrity
To be honest and truthful as we seek justice for the communities we serve.
Pillars of Work
In order to effectively work towards our goal, we organize our work into four overarching pillars. These pillars help us focus and create targeted initiatives that lead to meaningful impact.
Our Research Themes
Given that the issues we focus on span a broad range of research areas, we have developed three comprehensive research themes to guide our work. These themes help us stay rooted in our commitment to multidisciplinary collaboration, ensuring we advance women’s health across all sectors.
Discovery
Biological and genetic mechanisms that impact health
Applied
Therapies and treatments that improve women’s health
Gender, Society and Health
The social, economic, cultural and gendered variables that impact health.
Our Plan
Through a Strategic Planning Town Hall and stakeholder consultations, including one with our Belonging, Dignity and Justice Advisory Committee, we developed a 3-year Strategic Plan that will ground us as we work towards achieving sex and gender health equity worldwide.
Our Impact
Our work focuses on supporting new and established researchers who strive to improve women’s health, while also affecting policy and investment in women’s health research. In 2022 we facilitated an international dialogue around women’s brain health research and formed partnerships to support our advocacy efforts in order to move toward improved health equity . In 2021 we provided networking opportunities, grant facilitation, and skills development. Read our annual reports below.
Annual Reports
Why Women’s Health Research?
Experiences unique to women, such as pregnancy, menopause, hormonal contraceptive use, and hormone therapy significantly impact health and disease risk. However, they receive little attention, and many important factors that affect women’s health remain under-researched or overlooked entirely. One reason for this is the focus on including both men and women in every study, which often leaves female-specific health issues and factors underfunded and understudied. As a result, only ~3% of recent neuroscience and psychiatry studies were conducted exclusively in females (compared to ~30% in males). Additionally, our research shows that only ~6% of all health research projects funded in Canada from 2019-2020 were focused on female-specific issues. This neglect has serious consequences, and costs lives. The initial COVID-19 vaccine trials did not discuss potential menstrual or fertility issues, likely increasing vaccine hesitancy among women. The WHRC addressed this by publishing blogs that garnered over 181,900 pageviews, highlighting the demand for women-centered health research. This response to vaccine uptake shows how neglecting women’s health in research can negatively impact society. Therefore, to truly understand women’s health, we must study the unique factors affecting women, not just the differences between sexes or genders.
Issues we focus on
Health Inequity
Women often face poorer health outcomes than men due to missed diagnoses, overlooked symptoms, and treatments that aren’t properly tailored to them. They are diagnosed later, misdiagnosed more often, and experience more severe side effects of treatments. Conditions like anxiety, depression, and autoimmune disorders are more common and severe in women, and complications from diseases like diabetic heart disease are greater. These issues are even worse for women from marginalized communities. Studying the differences in disease by sex and gender, with a focus on intersectionality, is key to achieving health equity through precision medicine.
Women’s Health Funding
Women’s health research is significantly underfunded in Canada and globally. According to the World Economic Forum, investing in women’s health could save $1 trillion annually. The U.S. government committed $12 billion to this cause in 2024, and we believe Canada and other countries should follow this example.
When funding is intentionally directed toward a cause, breakthroughs occur. The Ice Bucket Challenge, for instance, raised $115 million for ALS research, which more than doubled the research on ALS and resulted in several new treatments. To drive similar progress in women’s health, we need governments and charities to commit dedicated funding to research.
Optimal Research Practices
Inequities in women’s health result from the lack of consideration of women in research. While federal funding agencies in the US and Canada require the inclusion of sex and gender in studies, this has not been well implemented. We found that 92% of CIHR-funded health research projects from 2009-2020 ignored sex and gender considerations altogether.
Addressing these gaps and using proper methods to study sex and gender will improve health outcomes for women, men, and gender-diverse individuals. Therefore, we advocate for more research on women’s health, intersectionality, and better integration of sex and gender analysis to achieve health equity.
Our History
2019: Received inaugural funding from the University of British Columbia’s Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters program to establish the Women’s Health Research Cluster
2019: WHRC members were invited to Parliament Hill to advocate for the need to prioritize women’s health research
2020: First Town Hall. Read our Town Hall Report.
2020: Co-published a report about gynecologic cancers with the Gynecologic Cancer Initiative
2021: Published our most viewed blog about Menstrual Irregularities and the COVID-19 Vaccine
2021: The Women’s Health Interrupted podcast debuts
2021: Formed our Belonging, Dignity and Justice Advisory Committee, which is embedded within WHRC’s governance structure. Read our Terms of Reference.
2022: Published our first 3-year Strategic Plan
2023: WHRC publishes an academic paper about funding trends for women’s health, 2S/LGBTQ+, sex or gender considerations in Canada
2023: Two op eds were published to raise awareness about the need for dedicated women’s health research funding (Toronto Star, BMJ)
2024: WHRC forms a strategic alliance with the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health
2024: WHRC receives a groundbreaking $1M-donation from Manulife
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