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Biden Signs Executive Order to Expand Research on Women’s Health

The president said that improving women’s health was crucial to ensuring a healthy, stable economy.

Biden Signs Executive Order to Boost Women’s Health Research

The executive order is aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of women in health research..

We’ve launched the first ever White House initiative on women’s health research to pioneer the next generation of scientific research and discovery in women’s health. Think of all the breakthroughs we’ve made in medicine across the board, but women have not been the focus. And today — [applause] today, we’re jumpstarting that investment by dedicating $200 million in the National Institutes of Health to tackle some of the most pressing health problems facing women today. With the executive order I’m about to sign, I’m directing the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve women’s health — ever taken. And I’m going to ensure that women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the entire federal government. It’s not just in women’s health, not just at N.I.H., the National Science Foundation or the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency. I mean, across the board. This is really serious.

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Reporting from Washington

President Biden on Monday signed an executive order to expand the federal government’s research into women’s health, including midlife conditions like menopause, arthritis and heart disease, as well as issues specifically affecting women in the military.

In what the White House described as the “most comprehensive” action by a president on women’s health research, Mr. Biden directed federal agencies to ensure that they are using federal funds to research health conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect women.

Standing alongside the first lady, Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Biden said improving women’s health was crucial to guaranteeing a healthy, stable economy.

“There’s not a damn thing a man can do a woman can’t do,” Mr. Biden said. “To state the obvious, if you want to have the strongest economy in the world, you can’t leave half of the country behind.”

Carolyn M. Mazure, a psychologist and a professor at the Yale School of Medicine, who is the chairwoman of the White House initiative on Women’s Health Research, told reporters on Sunday night that health conditions like heart disease, Alzheimer’s, menopause and fibroids would be a focus of the expanded research effort.

“I’m not even a betting woman,” said Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California, who also attended the event, “but I’ll bet today that this is the first time a president of the United States has ever signed an executive order that mentions the words ‘menopause’ and ‘women’s midlife health’ in it.”

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos should be considered children , threatening in vitro fertilization, the Biden campaign has increasingly accused Republicans of undermining women’s health. During his State of the Union address this month, Mr. Biden said such decisions would motivate women to vote in the November election, while also saying his White House would commit to investing in women’s health in the year ahead.

“You can’t lead America with old ideas and take us backwards,” Mr. Biden said, adding, “To lead the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future laying out what we can and should do and what we’re going to do.”

Mr. Biden’s executive order will require agencies to report annually their investments in women’s health research and to study ways that artificial intelligence can be used to advance such research. The National Institutes of Health will increase by 50 percent investments in small businesses focused on women’s health. The Defense Department also plans to invest $10 million to learn more about cancers and mental health issues affecting women in active military service.

The White House has called on Congress to pass a plan to invest $12 billion to create a new fund for women’s health research at the National Institutes of Health. In the meantime, the executive order signed on Monday directed the N.I.H. to spend $200 million on women’s health research. Dr. Biden traveled to Cambridge, Mass., last month to announce the first step of the women’s health initiative: $100 million to support women’s health researchers and start-up companies.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs

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The Mayo Clinic Women's Health Research Center advances scientific discoveries to improve the health of women through all stages of life.

The center is at the forefront of a new era in women's health, based on the understanding that the female body isn't simply a smaller version of the male form. Women and men have different chromosomes and hormones. Thus, disease risk, diagnosis and response to treatments — including some medicines — are often different for women and men.

Yet current medical treatments are often based on research that was conducted mainly on men. Or, when women were included, the research didn't account for differences between women and men.

Mayo Clinic is transforming women's health by advancing research and studies specifically focused on the unique needs and abilities of the female body through all stages of life.

Investigators in the Women's Health Research Center are studying why certain illnesses occur more often — or sometimes only — in women or manifest differently in women than in men. Armed with this information, healthcare professionals can better prevent, diagnose and treat some of today's most debilitating diseases.

For more than 150 years, Mayo Clinic research has changed the face of medicine, enabling healthcare professionals around the world to provide lifesaving care to millions of people. Now, Mayo is advancing research focused on women's health so that medical care can be personalized for women and men.

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Putting science to work for the health of women

• Advancing NIH Research on the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference

In response to a congressional request to address NIH efforts related to women’s health research, the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health (ACRWH), hosted an event on October 20, 2021, titled “Advancing NIH Research on the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference.” The key topics discussed, as identified by Congress, were (1) clinical practices related to rising maternal morbidity and mortality rates; (2) increasing rates of chronic debilitating conditions in women; and (3) stagnant cervical cancer survival rates. Learn more about these issues below.

Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

Maternal morbidity and mortality is a public health crisis in the United States, with an estimated 6 in 10 maternal deaths being preventable. During 2011–2015, the United States had nearly twice the live birth maternal mortality rate as peer countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom. This rise in maternal mortality is even more pronounced among women of color, including Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic women. These racial and ethnic disparities are influenced by structural racism, implicit bias, and racially biased policies and practices, with neither education nor higher socioeconomic status mitigating the elevated risks.

Chronic Debilitating Conditions in Women

Rates of chronic debilitating conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), affecting women in the U.S. are on the rise, and chronic diseases are more common in women than men. However, there is a limited understanding of the impact of sex and gender influences on the outcomes of individuals with chronic diseases. Current challenges include lack of research on rare diseases that are more prevalent in women and the lower specificity, sensitivity, and efficacy of diagnostic tests for women. Also, disparities exist among underserved racial and ethnic groups. For example, Black women are 20% more likely to die from heart disease than White women.

Stagnant Cervical Cancer Survival Rates

In the U.S., there are approximately 12,000 new cases of cervical cancer per year. Despite increased cervical cancer prevention efforts through human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and cervical cancer screening, the incidence of and mortality rate from cervical cancer have remained stable over the past two decades. There are also significant racial and ethnic disparities related to cervical cancer. For example, Black and Hispanic women in the U.S. are diagnosed more frequently than women of other races and ethnicities in the U.S. and are less likely to survive.

• Full Report
• Executive Summary
• Welcome to the Advancing NIH Research for the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference
• Advancing NIH Research for the Health of Women: A 2021 Conference Agenda

Introduction Samia Noursi, Ph.D. Associate Director for Science Policy, Planning, and Analysis NIH Office of Research on Women's Health

Welcome Janine Austin Clayton, M.D., FARVO Associate Director for Research on Women's Health, NIH Director, NIH Office of Research on Women 's Health

Women's Health Matters: When, Where, and Why Chloe Bird, Ph.D . Senior Sociologist, RAND Corporation

How Stereotypes Underpin Inequities for Women in Academic STEMM and Advancements in Women’s Healt h  Molly Carnes, M.D. Virginia Valian Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison Founder and Director, Center for Women’s Health Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison

The U.S. Maternal Health Care Crisis  Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Impact of Chronic Disease: The Sex & Gender Gap Marjorie Jenkins, M.D., M.E.H.P., FACP Dean, University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville Chief Academic Officer, Prisma Health–Upstate

Cervical Cancer: How Can We Overcome Our History? BJ Rimel, M.D. Vice Chair, Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee, Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute Associate Director, Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Trials, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Session Moderator Yoel Sadovsky, M.D. Executive Director, Magee-Womens Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh

Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: Tip of a Lifecourse Iceberg  Janet Rich-Edwards, Sc.D. Director of Research, Division of Women’s Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Director of Lifecourse Epidemiology, Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Harnessing the Power of Research: Optimizing Infrastructure to Optimize Maternal Outcomes  Uma Reddy, M.D., M.F.M. Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and Section Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine

Opportunities in Clinical Research to Reduce Maternal Morbidity and Mortality  Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, M.D., M.S. Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences; University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Expanding Maternal Morbidity & Mortality Research Within & Beyond Our Hospital Walls  Mary D’Alton, M.D. Willard C. Rappleye Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center

How Can Research Findings Be Translated into Reduced Maternal Morbidity and Mortality? Elliot Main, M.D.  Medical Director, California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University

You Are What You Love: Prioritizing Women’s Health Research for a Healthier Society Maeve Wallace, Ph.D. Associate Director, Mary Amelia Center for Women’s Health Equity Research

Root Causes of Maternal Health Outcomes and Research Justice Joia Crear-Perry, M.D. Founder and President, National Birth Equity Collaborative

Opportunities for Research to Reduce Disparities in Maternal Morbidity and Mortality  Stacie Geller, Ph.D. G. William Arends Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender, University of Illinois College of Medicine 

Chronic Debilitating Conditions in Women Session Moderator Judy Regensteiner, Ph.D. Director of the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research and Professor of Medicine in the Divisions of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Prevention of Chronic Conditions in Women to Advance Health and Function Across the Lifespan  Heidi D. Nelson, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.C.P., FRCP Professor Emerita of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University

The Impact of Chronic Debilitating Conditions on Women   Kim Templeton, M.D. Professor and Vice-Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center

The Case of Fibroids as a Female-Specific Chronic Debilitating Condition William Catherino, M.D., Ph.D. Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology with tenure, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Fortifying Opportunities to Advance Female-Specific Chronic Disease Research Stacey Missmer, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

What We Do and Do Not Know About the Leading Killer of Women and What We Should Do About It Noel Bairey Merz, M.D.  Professor of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center  Director, Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, the Linda Joy Pollin Women’s Heart Health Program, the Erika J. Glazer Women’s Heart Research Initiative, and the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center, Cedars-Sinai’s Smidt Heart Institute

Chronic Debilitating Conditions: The Heart of the Matter Judy Regensteiner, Ph.D. Director, Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research Professor of Medicine, Divisions of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Integrating Biopsychosocial Determinants of Health to Develop and Implement Culturally-Sensitive Care for Women Cheryl Woods Giscombé, Ph.D., RN Associate Dean of the Ph.D. Division & Program and Levine Family Distinguished Scholar in Quality of Life, Health Promotion, and Wellness, University of North Carolina School of Nursing

Beyond Sex as a Biological Variable: Addressing Chronic Debilitating Conditions Among All Women Melissa Simon, M.D. Vice Chair for Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

Stagnant Cervical Cancer Survival Rates Session Moderator Wendy Brewster, M.D., Ph.D. Director, Center for Women’s Health Research, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

The Future of Cervical Cancer Prevention in the United States: The Realities of Evidence Beyond Innovation Cosette Wheeler, Ph.D. Regents’ Professor, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center  Director, New Mexico HPV Pap Registry

A Path Forward Toward Accelerating Cervical Cancer Eradication Diana S.M. Buist, Ph.D., M.P.H. Senior Investigator and Director of Research and Strategic Partnerships, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Professor, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine 

Improving Treatment for Cervical Cancer: What Can Tumor Biology Tell Us?  Julie Schwarz, M.D., Ph.D.  Director of the Cancer Biology Division and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Translating Science into Improved Patient Care for Women with Cervical Cancer Janet Rader, M.D. Jack A. and Elaine D. Klieger Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical College of Wisconsin

The Future of Clinical Research in Cervical Cancer Treatment Charles Kunos, M.D. Medical Director, University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office

NCI Clinical Trials in Gynecologic Cancer: A Changing Landscape  Robert Mannel, M.D.  Director, Stephenson Cancer Center University of Oklahoma College of Medicine

The Urgent Need for Cross-Cutting Anti-Racist Approaches to Cancer Disparities Research Kemi Doll, M.D.  Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Washington Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington School of Public Health

Clinical Trials in Cervical Cancer: Can They Be All That We Want Them to Be? Trey Leath, M.D. Director, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Innovation Through the Lens of Women’s Health Research: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats  Linda Griffith, Ph.D. Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) MacVicar Fellow, MIT

• Women's Health Equity & Inclusion
• ORWH MISSION AREA: Women's Health Equity & Inclusion
• NIH Inclusion Outreach Toolkit
• Women, Science, and the Impact of COVID-19
• Clinical Research and Trials
• Research on Menopause & Midlife Health
• NIH Inclusion Policies
• Common Definitions (NIH Inclusion Policies)
• Including Women and Minorities in Clinical Research
• Related ORWH Programs & Initiatives
• Diverse Voices Lecture Series
• Women’s Health Research in Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Programs
• Maternal Morbidity and Mortality (MMM) Web Portal
• Tools, Resources, and U3 Funding Opportunities
• U3 Women's Health Lecture Series
• Current and Previous ORWH U3 Projects
• ORWH U3 Interdisciplinary Research Administrative Supplement

Director’s Messages

February 27, 2024

January 25, 2024

November 30, 2023

October 25, 2023

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• 03 May 2023

Women’s health: end the disparity in funding

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Demonstrators in Washington DC last September drew attention to the lack of funding for research into chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. Credit: Bryan Olin Dozier/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

This year marks the 30th anniversary of a landmark US law. In 1993, it became compulsory to include women and under-represented groups in research and clinical trials funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Before the NIH Revitalization Act was passed, it was both normal and acceptable for drugs and vaccines to be tested only on men — or to exclude women who could become pregnant.

Thankfully, that has now changed. NIH data show that roughly half of participants in NIH-funded trials are women. The NIH has an office dedicated to research into women’s health and the agency mandates that researchers use both male and female animals in their studies, as appropriate. Health-research funders in Canada and Europe have adopted similar policies. The NIH has also contributed US$10 million for an Office of Autoimmune Disease Research, as directed by the US Congress — women make up approximately 80% of people with autoimmune diseases.

How menopause reshapes the brain

Nonetheless, female participation rates in some studies remain low, as affirmed by a report published in March and commissioned by the Women’s Brain Project, a non-profit body based in Guntershausen, Switzerland (see go.nature.com/44ewmd4 ). Women are under-represented in clinical trials in oncology and neurology 1 relative to the incidence of disability and death that those diseases exert. At the same time, funding for many conditions that exclusively or disproportionately affect women is lower than for those affecting men.

Few of the world’s leading health-research funders systematically collect, analyse and publicize what they have learnt about trends in women’s-health research funding. Those scientists who are trying to fill this gap are finding data collection difficult. The NIH’s funding taxonomy, for example, does not even classify some aspects of women’s health research in a way that allows researchers to quickly obtain the information they need.

Menopause is a case in point, as Nature reports in a Feature in this issue . Despite its importance for the health of half the world’s population, menopause is under-studied. And, at least in the United States, it is difficult to track funding for menopause research, because the NIH hasn’t assigned menopause a unique identification code like the ones other conditions (such as anorexia or prostate cancer) have. Someone wanting to find out must read every grant that mentions ‘menopause’ and add up the numbers manually.

Last year, four members of the US Congress, from both parties, introduced a bill that, if passed, would require the NIH to evaluate how much has been spent on menopause research. But legislation shouldn’t be needed; the agency should classify menopause as a category in its own right so that data can be tracked as readily as for other conditions in the NIH funding database. Once this happens, policymakers, advocacy groups and researchers will better understand where the gaps in funding lie, and can start to address them.

Women’s health research lacks funding — these charts show how

Our examination of the funding landscape for women’s health reveals that this analysis is one that not many researchers seem to have embarked on. Applied mathematician Arthur Mirin is among the few to have studied funding trends in women’s-health research in the United States. Mirin came out of retirement to do this after his daughter was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis. Mirin wanted to find out how much NIH funding was available in a field where women make up three-quarters of those affected. He discovered that ME/CFS attracted the least amount of NIH funding when matched against disease burden 2 — measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), the cumulative number of years of healthy life lost because of illness, added to the years lost because of premature death. In 2019, for example, ME/CFS research received $15 million in NIH funding, for a disease that caused more than 700,000 DALYs in the United States.

Mirin later analysed 3 NIH data for other diseases, including those that predominantly affect men such as liver or prostate cancer. In the majority of cases, diseases that predominantly affect women — such as migraines, headaches, anorexia and endometriosis — received funding that was a fraction of what was awarded for diseases that predominantly affected men, when funding amounts are matched to disease burden. This is unacceptable. Mirin rightly urged the NIH to do its own funding-versus-burden analysis, and to analyse correlations between funding and gender.

The past 30 years has in many ways changed the landscape for women’s-health research. But in other respects, time has stood still. Mirin has helped to unlock a window to a previously hidden corner of research. Funders need to throw it wide open, do their own studies and establish more funding calls so that other scholars can work with them. At the same time, funders must review how they classify the components of women’s health, because that will speed up data collection. A separate identification code for menopause should not be difficult to implement.

The NIH and other health-research funders also need to give more consideration to disease burden alongside scientific merit when they assess grant proposals, because that, too, will unlock more funding for under-studied conditions. It must not take another 30 years for studies into women’s health to break free from the margins and into the mainstream.

Nature 617 , 8 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01472-5

Steinberg, J. R. JAMA Netw. Open 4 , e2113749 (2021).

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Women’s Health Research

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Even though slightly over half of the U.S. population is female, medical research historically has neglected the health needs of women. However, over the past two decades, there have been major changes in government support of women's health research--in policies, regulations, and the organization of research efforts. To assess the impact of these changes, Congress directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ask the IOM to examine what has been learned from that research and how well it has been put into practice as well as communicated to both providers and women.

Women's Health Research finds that women's health research has contributed to significant progress over the past 20 years in lessening the burden of disease and reducing deaths from some conditions, while other conditions have seen only moderate change or even little or no change. Gaps remain, both in research areas and in the application of results to benefit women in general and across multiple population groups. Given the many and significant roles women play in our society, maintaining support for women's health research and enhancing its impact are not only in the interest of women, they are in the interest of us all.

• Collapse All
• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH
• CHARGE TO THE COMMITTEE
• THE COMMITTEE’S APPROACH TO ITS CHARGE
• ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT
• BEHAVIORAL FACTORS
• SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY FACTORS
• SOCIETAL FACTORS
• CONCLUSIONS
• CONDITIONS ON WHICH RESEARCH HAS CONTRIBUTED TO MAJOR PROGRESS
• CONDITIONS ON WHICH RESEARCH HAS CONTRIBUTED TO SOME PROGRESS
• CONDITIONS ON WHICH LITTLE PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE
• STUDY DESIGN
• SUBJECT SAMPLING
• OUTCOME MEASURES
• METHODOLOGIC LESSONS FROM THE WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE
• RECOMMENDATIONS
• TRANSLATION OF FINDINGS INTO PRACTICE
• COMMUNICATION
• CASE STUDIES IN TRANSLATION AND COMMUNICATION
• IS WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH STUDYING THE MOST APPROPRIATE AND RELEVANT DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH?
• IS WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH FOCUSED ON THE MOST APPROPRIATE AND RELEVANT DISEASES, DISORDERS, CONDITIONS, OUTCOMES, AND END POINTS?
• IS WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH STUDYING THE MOST RELEVANT GROUPS OF WOMEN?
• ARE THE MOST APPROPRIATE RESEARCH METHODS BEING USED TO STUDY WOMEN’S HEALTH?
• ARE THE RESEARCH FINDINGS BEING TRANSLATED IN A WAY THAT AFFECTS PRACTICE?
• ARE THE RESEARCH FINDINGS BEING COMMUNICATED EFFECTIVELY TO WOMEN?
• GAPS IN WOMEN’S HEALTH RESEARCH
• COMMITTEE’S KEY FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
• APPENDIX A Agendas for Public Meetings
• APPENDIX B Mortality Statistics
• APPENDIX C Selected Studies of Women’s Health

This study was supported by Contract HHSP23320042509XI, TO# HHSP2332080003T, between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Health and Human Services. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

Suggested citation:

IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2010. Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

• Cite this Page Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Women's Health Research. Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2010. doi: 10.17226/12908
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Women's Health Research Roadmap

From the FDA Office of Women's Health (OWH)

On this page: About the roadmap | Research priority areas | Related links  

Download the Research Roadmap (PDF, 9.20 MB)

About the Women’s Health Research Roadmap

A strategy for science and innovation to improve the health of women  

Since its inception, the FDA Office of Women’s Health (OWH) has worked closely with FDA’s centers to expand existing research projects and foster new collaborations related to advancing the science of women’s health. OWH has also worked with other government agencies, academia, women’s research organizations, and other stakeholders to foster and facilitate research projects and scientific forums. These combined efforts have helped to advance our understanding of women’s health issues. They have furthered the development of new tools and approaches for informing FDA decisions about the harm or the safety and effectiveness of FDA-regulated products that are used not only by women, but by all Americans.

The Women’s Health Research Roadmap builds on knowledge gained from previously funded research and is intended to assist OWH in coordinating future research activities with other FDA research programs and with external partners. The Roadmap outlines priority areas where new or enhanced research is needed. Although many critical women’s health issues may warrant further examination, future OWH-funded research should focus on areas where advancements will be directly relevant to FDA as it makes regulatory decisions. The Roadmap creates strategic direction for OWH to help maximize the impact of OWH initiatives and ultimately promote optimal health for women.  

Research priority areas

• Advance safety and efficacy : Advance the safety and efficacy and reduce the toxicity of FDA-regulated products used by women
• Improve clinical study design and analyses : Improve clinical study design and conduct to better identify and evaluate possible sex differences related to FDA-regulated products
• Novel modeling and simulation approaches : Evaluate and promote the adoption of novel modeling and simulation approaches that can aid in regulatory evaluation of FDA-regulated products
• Advances in biomarker science : Develop tools and methods that can help identify, evaluate, and qualify predictive or prognostic clinical and non-clinical biomarkers and surrogate endpoints
• Expand data sources and analysis : Identify, develop, and evaluate data sources and efficient techniques for data mining, data linkage, and large data set analysis that can be used to assess the postmarket toxicity or the safety and effectiveness of FDA-regulated products
• Improve health communications : Develop, evaluate, and use tools and methods to foster the creation and easy availability of clear and useful information about FDA-regulated products used by women to help women and their health care professionals make informed health-related decisions
• Emerging technologies : Support the identification of sex differences related to the use of emerging technologies

Related links

• OWH information on BAA funding
• Extramural Research - Women's Health (including funding information)

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FACT SHEET: President   Biden Issues Executive Order and Announces New Actions to Advance Women’s Health Research and   Innovation

In his State of the Union address, President Biden laid out his vision for transforming women’s health research and improving women’s lives all across America. The President called on Congress to make a bold, transformative investment of $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. This investment would be used to create a Fund for Women’s Health Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research agenda and to establish a new nationwide network of research centers of excellence and innovation in women’s health—which would serve as a national gold standard for women’s health research across the lifespan.

It is long past time to ensure women get the answers they need when it comes to their health—from cardiovascular disease to autoimmune diseases to menopause-related conditions. To pioneer the next generation of discoveries, the President and the First Lady launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research , which aims to fundamentally change how we approach and fund women’s health research in the United States.

Today, President Biden is signing a new Executive Order that will direct the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to expand and improve research on women’s health. These directives will ensure women’s health is integrated and prioritized across the federal research portfolio and budget, and will galvanize new research on a wide range of topics, including women’s midlife health.

The President and First Lady are also announcing more than twenty new actions and commitments by federal agencies, including through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). This includes the launch of a new NIH-wide effort that will direct key investments of $200 million in Fiscal Year 2025 to fund new, interdisciplinary women’s health research—a first step towards the transformative central Fund on Women’s Health that the President has called on Congress to invest in. These actions also build on the First Lady’s announcement last month of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Sprint for Women’s Health , which committed $100 million towards transformative research and development in women’s health.

Today, the President is issuing an Executive Order that will:

• Integrate Women’s Health Across the Federal Research Portfolio . The Executive Order directs the Initiative’s constituent agencies to develop and strengthen research and data standards on women’s health across all relevant research and funding opportunities, with the goal of helping ensure that the Administration is better leveraging every dollar of federal funding for health research to improve women’s health. These actions will build on the NIH’s current policy to ensure that research it funds considers women’s health in the development of study design and in data collection and analysis. Agencies will take action to ensure women’s health is being considered at every step in the research process—from the applications that prospective grantees submit to the way that they report on grant implementation.
• Prioritize Investments in Women’s Health Research . The Executive Order directs the Initiative’s constituent agencies to prioritize funding for women’s health research and encourage innovation in women’s health, including through ARPA-H and multi-agency initiatives such as the Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program. These entities are dedicated to high-impact research and innovation, including through the support of early-stage small businesses and entrepreneurs engaged in research and innovation. The Executive Order further directs HHS and NSF to study ways to leverage artificial intelligence to advance women’s health research. These additional investments—across a wide range of agencies—will support innovation and open new doors to breakthroughs in women’s health.
• Galvanize New Research on Women’s Midlife Health .  To narrow research gaps on diseases and conditions associated with women’s midlife health or that are more likely to occur after menopause, such as rheumatoid arthritis, heart attack, and osteoporosis, the President is directing HHS to: expand data collection efforts related to women’s midlife health; launch a comprehensive research agenda that will guide future investments in menopause-related research; identify ways to improve management of menopause-related issues and the clinical care that women receive; and develop new resources to help women better understand their options for menopause-related symptoms prevention and treatment. The Executive Order also directs the DoD and VA to study and take steps to improve the treatment of, and research related to, menopause for Service women and women veterans.
• Assess Unmet Needs to Support Women’s Health Research . The Executive Order directs the Office of Management and Budget and the Gender Policy Council to lead a robust effort to assess gaps in federal funding for women’s health research and identify changes—whether statutory, regulatory, or budgetary—that are needed to maximally support the broad scope of women’s health research across the federal government. Agencies will also be required to report annually on their investments in women’s health research, as well as progress towards their efforts to improve women’s health.

Today, agencies are also announcing new actions they are taking to promote women’s health research , as part of their ongoing efforts through the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Agencies are announcing actions to:

Prioritize and Increase Investments in Women’s Health Research

• Launch an NIH-Cross Cutting Effort to Transform Women’s Health Throughout the Lifespan. NIH is launching an NIH-wide effort to close gaps in women’s health research across the lifespan. This effort—which will initially be supported by $200 million from NIH beginning in FY 2025—will allow NIH to catalyze interdisciplinary research, particularly on issues that cut across the traditional mandates of the institutes and centers at NIH. It will also allow NIH to launch ambitious, multi-faceted research projects such as research on the impact of perimenopause and menopause on heart health, brain health and bone health. In addition, the President’s FY25 Budget Request would double current funding for the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health to support new and existing initiatives that emphasize women’s health research.

This coordinated, NIH-wide effort will be co-chaired by the NIH Office of the Director, the Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the institute directors from the National Institute on Aging; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Institute on Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

• Invest in Research on a Wide Range of Women’s Health Issues. The bipartisan Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), led out of DoD, funds research on women’s health encompassing a range of diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently from men. While the programs and topic areas directed by Congress differ each year, CDMRP has consistently funded research to advance women’s health since its creation in 1993. In Fiscal Year 2022, DoD implemented nearly $490 million in CDMRP investments towards women’s health research projects ranging from breast and ovarian cancer to lupus to orthotics and prosthetics in women.  In Fiscal Year 2023, DoD anticipates implementing approximately $500 million in CDMRP funding for women’s health research, including in endometriosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic fatigue.
• Call for New Proposals on Emerging Women’s Health Issues . Today, NSF is calling for new research and education proposals to advance discoveries and innovations related to women’s health. To promote multidisciplinary solutions to women’s health disparities, NSF invites applications that would improve women’s health through a wide range of disciplines—from computational research to engineering biomechanics. This is the first time that NSF has broadly called for novel and transformative research that is focused entirely on women’s health topics, and proposals will be considered on an ongoing basis.
• Increase Research on How Environmental Factors Affect Women’s Health. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is updating its grant solicitations and contracts to ensure that applicants prioritize, as appropriate, the consideration of women’s exposures and health outcomes. These changes will help ensure that women’s health is better accounted for across EPA’s research portfolio and increase our knowledge of women’s environmental health—from endocrine disruption to toxic exposure.
• Create a Dedicated, One-Stop Shop for NIH Funding Opportunities on Women’s Health. Researchers are often unaware of existing opportunities to apply for federal funding. To help close this gap, NIH is issuing a new Notice of Special Interest that identifies current, open funding opportunities related to women’s health research across a wide range of health conditions and all Institutes, Centers, and Offices. The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health will build on this new Notice by creating a dedicated one-stop shop on open funding opportunities related to women’s health research. This will make it easier for researchers and institutions to find and apply for funding—instead of having to search across each of NIH’s 27 institutes for funding opportunities.

Foster Innovation and Discovery in Women’s Health

• Accelerate Transformative Research and Development in Women’s Health. ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health launched in February 2024 commits $100 million to transformative research and development in women’s health. ARPA-H is soliciting ideas for novel groundbreaking research and development to address women’s health, as well as opportunities to accelerate and scale tools, products, and platforms with the potential for commercialization to improve women’s health outcomes.
• Support Private Sector Innovation Through Additional Federal Investments in Women’s Health Research. The NIH’s competitive Small Business Innovation Research Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program is committing to further increasing—by 50 percent—its investments in supporting innovators and early-stage small businesses engaged in research and development on women’s health. These programs will solicit new proposals on promising women’s health innovation and make evidence-based investments that bridge the gap between performance of basic science and commercialization of resulting innovations. This commitment for additional funds builds on the investments the Administration has already made to increase innovation in women’s health through small businesses, including by increasing investments by sevenfold between Fiscal Year 2021 and Fiscal Year 2023.
• Advance Initiatives to Protect and Promote the Health of Women. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeks to advance efforts to help address gaps in research and availability of products for diseases and conditions that primarily impact women, or for which scientific considerations may be different for women, and is committed to research and regulatory initiatives that facilitate the development of safe and effective medical products for women. FDA also plans to issue guidance for industry that relates to the inclusion of women in clinical trials and conduct outreach to stakeholders to discuss opportunities to advance women’s health across the lifespan. And FDA’s Office of Women’s Health will update FDA’s framework for women’s health research and seek to fund research with an emphasis on bridging gaps in knowledge on important women’s health topics, including sex differences and conditions that uniquely or disproportionately impact women.
• Use Biomarkers to Improve the Health of Women Through Early Detection and Treatment of Conditions, such as Endometriosis. NIH will launch a new initiative dedicated to research on biomarker discovery and validation to help improve our ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat conditions that affect women uniquely, including endometriosis. This NIH initiative will accelerate our ability to identify new pathways for diagnosis and treatment by encouraging multi-sector collaboration and synergistic research that will speed the transfer of knowledge from bench to bedside.
• Leverage Engineering Research to Improve Women’s Health . The NSF Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA) is convening national experts to identify high-impact research opportunities in engineering that can improve women’s health. ERVA’s Transforming Women’s Health Outcomes Through Engineering visioning event will be held in June 2024, and will bring together experts from across engineering—including those in microfluidics, computational modeling, artificial intelligence/imaging, and diagnostic technologies and devices—to evaluate the landscape for new applications in women’s health. Following this event, ERVA will issue a report and roadmap on critical areas where engineering research can impact women’s health across the lifespan.
• Drive Engineering Innovations in Women’s Health Discovery . NSF awardees at Texas A&M University will hold a conference in summer 2024 to collectively identify challenges and opportunities in improving women’s health through engineering. Biomedical engineers and scientists will explore and identify how various types of engineering tools, including biomechanics and immuno-engineering, can be applied to women’s health and spark promising new research directions.

Expand and Leverage Data Collection and Analysis Related to Women’s Health

• Help Standardize Data to Support Research on Women’s Health. NIH is launching an effort to identify and develop new common data elements related to women’s health that will help researchers share and combine datasets, promote interoperability, and improve the accuracy of datasets when it comes to women’s health. NIH will initiate this process by convening data and scientific experts across the federal government to solicit feedback on the need to develop new NIH-endorsed common data elements—which are widely used in both research and clinical settings. By advancing new tools to capture more data about women’s health, NIH will give researchers and clinicians the tools they need to enable more meaningful data collection, analysis, and reporting and comprehensively improve our knowledge of women’s health.
• Reflect Women’s Health Needs in National Coverage Determinations. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will strengthen its review process, including through Coverage with Evidence Development guidance, to ensure that new medical services and technologies work well in women, as applicable, before being covered nationally through the Medicare program. This will help ensure that Medicare funds are used for treatments with a sufficient evidence base to show that they actually work in women, who make up more than half of the Medicare population.
• Leverage Data and Quality Measures to Advance Women’s Health Research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are building on existing datasets to improve the collection, analysis, and reporting of information on women’s health. The CDC is expanding the collection of key quality measures across a woman’s lifespan, including to understand the link between pregnancy and post-partum hypertension and heart disease, and plans to release the Million Hearts Hypertension in Pregnancy Change Package. This resource will feature a menu of evidence-informed strategies by which clinicians can change care processes. Each strategy includes tested tools and resources to support related clinical quality improvement. HRSA is modernizing its Uniform Data System in ways that will improve the ability to assess how women are being served through HRSA-funded health centers. By improving the ability to analyze data on key clinical quality measures, CDC and HRSA can help close gaps in women’s health care access and identify new opportunities for high-impact research.  

Strengthen Coordination, Infrastructure, and Training to Support Women’s Health Research

• Launch New Joint Collaborative to Improve Women’s Health Research for Service Members and Veterans. DoD and VA are launching a new Women’s Health Research collaborative to explore opportunities that further promote joint efforts to advance women’s health research and improve evidence-based care for Service members and veterans. The collaborative will increase coordination with the goal of helping improve care across the lifespan for women in the military and women veterans. The Departments will further advance research on key women’s health issues and develop a roadmap to close pressing research gaps, including those specifically affecting Service women and women veterans.
• Coordinate Research to Advance the Health of Women in the Military. DoD will invest $10 million, contingent on available funds, in the Military Women’s Health Research Partnership. This Partnership is led by the Uniformed Services University and advances and coordinates women’s health research across the Department. The Partnership is supporting research in a wide range of health issues affecting women in the military, including cancers, mental and behavioral health, and the unique health care needs of Active Duty Service Women. In addition, the Uniformed Services University established a dedicated Director of Military Women’s Health Research Program, a role that is responsible for identifying research gaps, fostering collaboration, and coordinating and aligning a unified approach to address the evolving needs of Active Duty Service Women.
• Support EPA-Wide Research and Dissemination of Data on Women’s Health. EPA is establishing a Women’s Health Community of Practice to coordinate research and data dissemination. EPA also plans to direct the Board of Scientific Counselors to identify ways to advance EPA’s research with specific consideration of the intersection of environmental factors and women’s health, including maternal health.
• Expand Fellowship Training in Women’s Health Research. CDC, in collaboration with the CDC Foundation and American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is expanding training in women’s health research and public health surveillance to OBGYNs, nurses and advanced practice nurses. Through fellowships and public health experiences with CDC, these clinicians will gain public health research skills to improve the health of women and children exposed to or affected by infectious diseases, mental health and substance use disorders. CDC will invite early career clinicians to train in public health and policy to become future leaders in women’s health research.

Improve Women’s Health Across the Lifespan

• Create a Comprehensive Research Agenda on Menopause. To help women get the answers they need about menopause, NIH will launch its first-ever Pathways to Prevention series on menopause and the treatment of menopausal symptoms. Pathways to Prevention is an independent, evidence-based process to synthesize the current state of the evidence, identify gaps in existing research, and develop a roadmap that can be used to help guide the field forward. The report, once completed, will help guide innovation and investments in menopause-related research and care across the federal government and research community.
• Improve Primary Care and Preventive Services for Women . The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) will issue a Notice of Intent to publish a funding opportunity announcement for research to advance the science of primary care, which will include a focus on women’s health. Through this funding opportunity, AHRQ will build evidence about key elements of primary care that influence patient outcomes and advance health equity—focusing on women of color—such as care coordination, continuity of care, comprehensiveness of care, person-centered care, and trust. The results from the funding opportunity will shed light on vital targets for improvements in the delivery of primary healthcare across a woman’s lifespan, including women’s health preventive services, prevention and management of multiple chronic diseases, perinatal care, transition from pediatric to adult care, sexual and reproductive health, and care of older adults.
• Promote the Health of American Indian and Alaska Native Women. The Indian Health Service is launching a series of engagements, including focus groups, to better understand tribal beliefs related to menopause in American Indian and Alaska Native Women. This series will inform new opportunities to expand culturally informed patient care and research as well as the development of new resources and educational materials.
• Connect Research to Real-World Outcomes to Improve Women’s Mental and Behavioral Health. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is supporting a range of health care providers to address the unique needs of women with or at risk for mental health and substance use disorders. Building on its current efforts to provide technical assistance through various initiatives , SAMHSA intends, contingent on available funds, to launch a new comprehensive Women’s Behavioral Health Technical Assistance Center. This center will identify and improve the implementation of best practices in women’s behavioral health across the life span; identify and fill critical gaps in knowledge of and resources for women’s behavioral health; and provide learning opportunities, training, and technical assistance for healthcare providers.
• Support Research on Maternal Health Outcomes. USDA will fund research to help recognize early warning signs of maternal morbidity and mortality in recipients of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and anticipates awarding up to $5 million in Fiscal Year 2023 to support maternal health research through WIC. In addition, research being conducted through the Agricultural Research Service’s Human Nutrition Research Centers is focusing on women’s health across the lifespan, including the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and older adults.

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Home » About » Women’s Health Research

Women’s health Research

What is women’s health research.

Women’s health research is the study of health across a woman’s lifespan in order to preserve wellness and to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. It includes all health conditions for which women and men experience differences in risk, presentation, and treatment response, as well as health issues specific to women, such as pregnancy and menopause.

Women’s health research considers both sex and gender differences and how these differences affect disease risk, pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.

Sex vs. gender

What’s the difference.

While the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably in society, they have distinct definitions that apply in scientific research. Both sex and gender are variables that should be considered in scientific research, from the development and design of studies to the analysis and reporting of study results.

is a multidimensional biological construct based on anatomy, physiology, genetics, and hormones. These components are sometimes referred to together as “sex traits.”

is broadly defined as a multidimensional construct that encompasses gender identity and expression, as well as social and cultural expectations about status, characteristics, and behavior as they are associated with certain sex traits. Understandings of gender vary throughout historical and cultural contexts.

the health gap for women

Until about 25 years ago, essentially all health research was conducted on men..

Women were actively excluded from participating in most clinical trials. Why? Because of the persistent idea that female hormonal cycles were too difficult to manage in experiments — including the fear of harming potential pregnancies — and that using only one sex would reduce variation in results. This exclusion of females in health research wasn’t just limited to humans. It extended to research on female animals, cells, and tissue. Researchers assumed that they could simply extrapolate their male-only study results to females, a dangerous precedent that overlooked fundamental differences between women and men.

Fortunately, thanks to advocacy by the Society for Women’s Health Research and other groups, Congress passed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993, mandating the inclusion of women and minorities in NIH-funded clinical trials. In the same year, the Food and Drug Administration changed its policies to require the inclusion of women in efficacy studies and in the analysis of data on sex differences.

Then, in 2016, the NIH implemented a new policy stating that sex as a biological variable should be factored into preclinical research and reporting in vertebrate animal and human studies. Today, all NIH-funded researchers must either include both female and male research subjects or explain why they do not.

Although researchers have been playing catch-up for the past couple of decades, this longtime bias put the health of women at risk and created a huge gap in knowledge about women’s health and the role that differences between women and men play in health and disease. 

Differences exist

The biological differences between women and men go beyond basic anatomy. Researchers must consider sex differences down to the cellular level in order to discover crucial information about the varied development, function, and biology between women and men.

of women with sleep apnea go undiagnosed

because they may not report the same “textbook” symptoms as men.

of those with Alzheimer’s disease are women

and some research suggests women are at greater risk for AD than men.

of people with osteoporosis are women

and they experience rapid bone loss at menopause due to hormonal changes.

The Inclusion of Women in Research

1977 · The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bars women of child bearing potential from participating in most early phase clinical research.

1985 · A United States Public Health Service task force concludes that exclusion of women from clinical research was detrimental to women’s health.

1986 · The National Institutes of Health (NIH) adopts guidelines urging the inclusion of women in NIH-sponsored clinical research.

1990 · The Society for Women’s Health Research is founded and asks the General Accounting Office (GAO) to examine whether NIH is following its 1986 guideline.

1990 · A GAO report reveals that the NIH guidelines are not being followed. The Physician’s Health or “aspirin” study, designed to examine the impact of taking aspirin on cardiovascular disease, is one of many large studies not included women highlighted by the report.

1993 · The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 mandates that the NIH must ensure that women and members of minorities and their subpopulations are included in all human subject research. 1993 · The FDA rescinds earlier guidelines barring the participation of women with child-bearing potential from most early phase research.

2000 · The GAO concludes that although women are now included in clinical research proportionate to their representation in the population, analysis by sex of subjects is rare.

2001 · The GAO concludes FDA not effectively monitoring research data to determine how sex differences affect drug safety and effectiveness.

2006 · The Organization for the Study of Sex Differences is established. It is the brain child of basic and clinical scientists with established research commitments to the study of sex differences, and staff members of SWHR.

2012 · Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) signed into law, requiring FDA to provide a special report and accounting of trials by sex, race, and ethnicity.

2014 · The National Institutes of Health (NIH) enact new policies to address sex differences by will be requiring applicants to report their cell and animal inclusion plans as part of preclinical experimental design.

2015 · The FDA launched the website Drug Trials Snapshots that provide consumers with information about who participated in clinical trials that supported the FDA approval of new drugs. The site is is part of an overall FDA effort to make demographic data more available and transparent.

2016 · NIH implemented a policy that expects scientists to account for the possible role of sex as a biological variable (SABV) in vertebrate animal and human studies.

Both sex and gender influence health across the lifespan, and SWHR strives to comprehensively address both sex and gender as they relate to women’s health. When citing research, SWHR uses terminology consistent with what is used in the cited study. As inclusive language practices continue to evolve in the scientific and medical communities, we will reassess our language as usage to promote accuracy and inclusivity. Please note that not all language will be updated retroactively.  

SWHR acknowledges that there are valued groups of people that may benefit from our materials who do not identify as women. We encourage those who identify differently to engage with us and our content. 

Assessment of NIH Research on Women's Health

This study aims to fill gaps in our understanding of women's health research across all NIH Institutes and Centers. It will analyze how much funding is allocated to research on conditions that affect women specifically or are more common among women, and how these conditions are defined across different stages of life. The study will also assess sex differences and racial health disparities. Ultimately, the study will determine the funding needed to bridge gaps in women's health research at NIH.

Deadline: April 3, 2024

Call for Feedback

The National Academies' Committee on the Assessment of NIH Research on Women’s Health is inviting stakeholders and patients to share their perspectives on gaps in women’s health research, particularly across NIH Institutes and Centers. Please submit your comments by April 3, 2024.  

Upcoming Events

Multiday Event | April 11-12, 2024

Publications

No publications are associated with this project at this time.

No projects are underway at this time.

Description

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will convene an ad hoc committee with specific scientific, ethical, regulatory, and policy expertise to develop a framework for addressing the persistent gaps that remain in the knowledge of women's health research across all NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs). Specifically, the study should be designed to analyze the proportion of research that the NIH funds on conditions that are female-specific and/or more common amongst women or that differently impact women (e.g., different pathophysiology or course of disease), establish how these conditions are defined and ensure that it captures conditions across the lifespan, evaluates sex differences and racial health disparities. Ultimately, the study should determine the appropriate level of funding that is needed to address gaps in women's health research at NIH.

The NASEM consensus committee, as a first step, will conduct an analysis and develop a matrix of identified NIH research on conditions that are female-specific, more common amongst women or that differently impact women; investigating sex differences; and centered on the unique health needs of women.

The committee will make recommendations for the following:

• Research priorities for NIH-supported research on women’s health
• NIH training and education efforts to build, support, and maintain a robust women’s health research workforce
• NIH structure (extra- and intra-mural), systems, review processes to optimize women’s health research
•   NIH-wide workforce to effectively solicit, review and support women’s health research
• Defining women’s health in today’s social and cultural climate
•   Allocation of funding such that NIH women’s health funding is reflective of the burdens of disease among women.

The committee will identify metrics to ensure that research is tracked to meet the continuing health needs of women.

• Health and Medicine Division
• Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
• Board on Health Care Services
• Board on Health Sciences Policy

In Progress

Consensus Study

• Health and Medicine

Contact the Public Access Records Office to make an inquiry, request a list of the public access file materials, or obtain a copy of the materials found in the file.

Committee Membership Roster Comments

Felina Cordova-Marks and Holly A. Ingraham were added on December 6, 2023. Bios were updated for Cheng, Golden, Kaplan, Lane, Salmon, and Secord on December 15, 2023, and for Burke on December 20, 2023. Bios for Cordova-Marks and Kaplan were updated on January 19, 2024. Crystal Schiller was added on January 25, 2024. The bio for Golden was updated on 3/5/2024.

Past Events

Multiday Event | March 7-8, 2024

3:30PM - 4:00PM (ET)

February 27, 2024

[Closed] Assessment of NIH Research on Women's Health: Evaluation criteria work group, Meeting #2

Multiday Event | January 30-31, 2024

[Closed] Assessment of NIH Research on Women's Health: Funding assessment work group, Meeting #1

Multiday Event | January 25-26, 2024

11:00AM - 12:00PM (ET)

January 18, 2024

[Closed] Assessment of NIH Research on Women's Health: Definitions work group, Meeting #1

Rachel Riley

(202) 334-3288

[email protected]

Responsible Staff Officers

• Amy Geller  

Additional Project Staff

• Aimee Mead  
• Magdaline Anderson  
• Luz Brielle Dojer  
• Rachel Riley  

Biden signs executive order to boost women's health research

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday to expand research on women’s health care, including strengthening data standards.

The president also announced more than 20 new actions and commitments by federal agencies, including $200 million for research at the National Institutes of Health. The White House described the investments as a first step toward a “Fund on Women’s Health” that Biden called on Congress to invest in during his State of the Union address this month.

First lady Jill Biden’s announced $100 million in funding for women’s health last month.

In remarks at a Women’s History Month event at the White House on Monday afternoon, the president touted that women are not underrepresented in his administration despite being “underrepresented across the board.”

“We’re proud to have an administration that looks like America, with more women serving in a senior position than any time in American history,” Biden said. He praised Vice President Kamala Harris, his Supreme Court pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and women serving in the Defense Department's top ranks, including the first woman confirmed to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff .

Biden stressed that research “has taken much too long" to address women's health care and said his executive order directs "the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to improve” women’s health.

He criticized Republicans who opposed the American Rescue Plan, the Covid-era economic stimulus bill that he signed into law, saying its increase in the child tax credit “cut child poverty nearly in half.” He also warned that his opponents are underestimating the “power of women” at the ballot box.

“Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade to support a national ban on abortion have no clue about the power of women," he said, referring to conservatives who support the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the landmark ruling.

"They’re going to speak out again in 2024 and send me a Democratic Congress that supports reproductive freedom,” he added, referring to female voters. “I promise you, I promise you we will restore Roe v. Wade again as the law of the land.”

Carolyn Mazure, chairperson of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, said on a media call Sunday afternoon that there has never been "such a comprehensive effort from the federal government to spur innovation, women’s health and ensure that relevant federally funded research works harder for women."

"This is a huge opportunity for transformative change and will help improve the health and lives of women all across the country,” Mazure said.

She noted that although women make up half of the population, research into women’s health has been underfunded and understudied.

“While we’ve made tremendous progress over the last two decades, from revolutionary discoveries in certain disorders affecting women to increasing the number of women enrolled in clinical trials, we still know too little about how to effectively prevent, diagnose and treat a wide array of health conditions in women, conditions that have different symptoms for women and men," including heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as conditions unique to women, such as endometriosis and fibroids, Mazure said.

The president and the first lady launched the White House initiative on women’s health research in November. Jill Biden has spearheaded the effort by traveling across the country to tour research institutions and speak with women and health care innovators about the need to transform women’s health research, Mazure said.

Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said the announcements about women’s health research build on the president’s call for Congress to invest $12 billion in new funding for it during his State of the Union address, which includes establishing a central fund for women’s health at the NIH that, in part, would create a nationwide network dedicated to studying the subject.

Biden is directing federal agencies "to integrate women’s health across the federal research portfolio," prioritizing investment in research and innovation through entities like the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health and the Small Business Innovation Research program, Klein said. The effort aims to galvanize research on women’s midlife health, including post-menopause diseases and conditions such as heart attacks, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis, and "to assess unmet needs to support women’s health research by identifying gaps in federal funding and requiring agencies to report on their progress in improving women’s health,” she said.

The executive order comes in the wake of widespread backlash over a recent Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on in vitro fertilization treatments that said embryos are considered to be children, prompting state Republicans to swiftly pass bills to protect the procedure.

Biden has repeatedly condemned the Supreme Court’s overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022, and Democrats have made reproductive rights a focal point in their 2024 campaigns.

Summer Concepcion is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Biden expands women's health research, adds $200 million for sexual, reproductive issues

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Indonesia recovers two bodies after Rohingya boat capsizes off Aceh

Indonesian authorities recovered two bodies from the shores of West Aceh on Saturday and said local fishermen reported several other drowning victims washed up after a vessel carrying Rohingya migrants capsized off the coast earlier this week.

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Dear Colleague Letter: Funding Opportunities for Science and Engineering Research with Impact on Women's Health

March 18, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

With this Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), in response to the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research , the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) encourages the submission of research and education proposals related to women's health. Despite making up more than half of the population, women are historically understudied and underrepresented in health research. The historical exclusion of women from scientific and biomedical research studies, combined with the undervaluation of research that advances knowledge on conditions that uniquely, differentially, or disproportionately affect women, has resulted in significant knowledge and health gaps. Addressing these research gaps will ultimately advance the health, prosperity, and welfare of all.

NSF continues to support fundamental science and engineering research with implications for women's health. This DCL reaffirms NSF's commitment to fund discovery, innovation, and research translation on topics of relevance to women's health, from the molecular to the ecosystem level, including input from the full range of science, engineering, and education that NSF supports. Pioneering the next generation of discoveries in women's health will require a sustained effort focusing on the socioeconomic impact of women's health, breaking down disciplinary boundaries in carrying out the necessary research to advance understanding of relevant questions, and building a diverse STEM workforce committed to advancing women's health and the health of a citizens.

The National Science Foundation encourages the submission of fundamental research and education proposals related to women's health topics, including, but not limited to, proposals in the following areas:

• Projects that develop a well-informed citizenry and a diverse and capable STEM workforce that will pioneer the next generation of discoveries in women's health.
• Science and engineering approaches and novel computational models that elucidate factors that interact with and impact women's health, such as studies that examine the genetic, epigenetic, biological, economic, societal, and environmental determinants of women's health and cognition.
• Holistic approaches to women's health and development, including aging, by moving beyond diagnostics and disease management to include novel methods for discovery and monitoring. This includes, but is not limited to, wearable devices, and other types of sensing and imaging technologies that improve early detection, as well as telehealth platforms that broaden accessibility and promote women's health.
• Foundational and transformative research that advances our understanding of engineering biomechanics and/or mechanobiology related to women's health.
• Advanced biomanufacturing of cells, tissues, or organs relevant to women's health.
• Engineering research that advances the understanding of injury mechanisms and rehabilitation technologies for health conditions and disabilities that affect women.
• Development of validated models (living or computational) of healthy and pathological cells, tissues, and organ systems relevant to women's health that improve the understanding of these systems.
• Projects on novel computational approaches (i.e. multi-level and multiscale data, sensing, prediction) that examine the effects of women's health on mental and physical development across the life span and that support health decision making.
• Projects that foster partnerships with government, industry, nonprofits, civil society, and communities of practice to leverage, energize, and rapidly bring to society use-inspired research and innovation that may include, but are not limited to, innovations that enable fundamental research of women's health topics, and breakthrough technologies designed for women.
• Transdisciplinary approaches to environmental change challenges and opportunities to improve understanding of climate, environment, and health pathways to protect and promote women's health, such as research that elucidates mechanisms and/or prevention of pollution transport/exposure implicated in adverse health outcomes.
• Studies that assess theories and models of health, aging, disease, and disease transmission at multiple scales (populational, generational, transgenerational, and geographical), from the molecular to the ecosystem level, including the interaction of environment on molecular scale phenomena.
• Research that seeks to advance knowledge about the processes that shaped biological diversity in living and ancient human species such as effects of life history transitions on women's health; intergenerational effects of violence, stress, and maternal health; and impacts of biocultural context on women's health, reproduction, and epigenetics.
• Research to advance theory on design and management of organizations such as how gendered aging symptoms may affect women's experience at work and in other environments.
• Research and research infrastructure to advance basic knowledge in bias, prejudice, and discrimination directed toward women as well as the intersection of gender and other identities; dynamics of close interpersonal relationships and women's health; and power in relationships.

NSF welcomes proposals that broaden geographic and demographic participation to engage the full spectrum of diverse talent in STEM. Proposals from minority-serving institutions , emerging research institutions , primarily undergraduate institutions, two-year colleges, and institutions in EPSCoR-eligible jurisdictions , along with collaborations between these institutions and those in non-EPSCoR jurisdictions, are encouraged.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION AND RELEVANT NSF PROGRAMS AND CONTACTS

This DCL does not constitute a new competition or program. Proposals submitted in response to this DCL should be prepared and submitted in accordance with guidelines in the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) and instructions found in relevant NSF funding opportunities. Investigators who wish to submit proposals on any of these topics, or others related to women's health, are strongly encouraged to reach out to the cognizant NSF Program Officer(s) listed in the relevant funding opportunity to discuss the fit of their ideas to existing program. Specific programs and opportunities list these contacts. For assistance in determining program suitability for a proposal concept, researchers are encouraged to utilize the NSF "Program Suitability & Proposal Concept Tool (ProSPCT) at https://suitability.nsf.gov/s/ . Note that NSF has limitations on the scope of health-related projects that can be submitted to participating programs. More information on these limitations can be found in "Introduction, Part A: about the National Science Foundation" in the PAPPG. In addition to these limitations, investigators should also review new information regarding human subjects in NSF-funded research at https://new.nsf.gov/funding/research-involving-human-subjects .

Susan Marqusee, Assistant Director Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)

Dilma Da Silva, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

Susan Margulies, Assistant Director Directorate for Engineering (ENG)

James Luther Moore, Assistant Director Directorate for STEM Education (EDU)

C. Denise Caldwell, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)

Kendra Sharp, Office Head Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE)

Alicia Knoedler, Office Head Office of Integrated Activities (OIA)

Sylvia M. Butterfield, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)

Erwin Gianchandani, Assistant Director Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP)

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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