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The economics of investing in women and health

Nature Medicine volume 31, pages 2532–2545 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Investments in women and their health hold transformative potential, serving as powerful drivers of gender equality, poverty reduction, equity and economic development. However, current investments are both insufficient and inappropriately designed to address the complex health needs of women throughout the life course. This paper explores the intrinsic returns that would stem from a virtuous cycle of investment in the health of women—by allowing full access to education and fair labor-force participation—as well as the instrumental returns to economic growth and sustainability. We highlight the vital and dual role of health systems in challenging structural biases affecting women in their consumption of health-care services, as well as appropriately recognizing and compensating women’s contributions as health care and care producers. By proactively and deliberately investing in gender equality throughout the life course and addressing the social determinants of women’s health, heath systems and governments can support optimal health as well as economic and equity outcomes for all women and for the societies in which they thrive.

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Fig. 1: The virtuous and vicious cycles spurred by investment in women and health.
Fig. 2: Evidence supporting priority areas for investment in women and health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Beverley M. Essue & Pratyasha Acharya

  2. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Beverley M. Essue

  3. Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Kristen Danforth

  4. T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Ana Langer

  5. University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Pratyasha Acharya

  6. David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Felicia Marie Knaul

  7. Faculty of Excellence, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico

    Felicia Marie Knaul

  8. Tómatelo a Pecho AC, Mexico City, DF, Mexico

    Felicia Marie Knaul

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  4. Pratyasha Acharya
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Correspondence to Beverley M. Essue.

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Competing interests

K.M., A.L. and P.A. have no competing interests. B.M.E. has previously worked as a consultant to the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas on a research project related to measuring the economic value of women’s paid and unpaid contributions to the health sector, funded by Merck KGaA/EMD Serono. The research from this grant is not reported in this paper. This grant did not influence the development of this paper. F.M.K. has one research grant to University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas related to measuring the economic value of women’s paid and unpaid contributions to the health sector received from Merck KGaA/EMD Serono. F.M.K. also serves as a consultant to the CEO of Merck KGaA and EMD Serono, advising the company’s strategy related to the Healthy Women, Healthy Economies and Embracing Carers initiatives, as well as on sustainable development and women in leadership. F.M.K. received no compensation from this consulting agreement for work on this paper. F.M.K. used research -grant travel funds to attend and present at the June 2019 Women Deliver Conference session ‘Healthy Women, Healthy Economies: New Insights into Womenomics’. F.M.K. is the founding president of Tómatelo a Pecho, A.C. Mexico (unpaid) and a senior economist with the Mexican Health Foundation (unpaid)). F.M.K.’s grant, research and roles did not influence the development of this paper.

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Essue, B.M., Danforth, K., Langer, A. et al. The economics of investing in women and health. Nat Med 31, 2532–2545 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03864-8

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