- Women’s health is still reduced to reproduction.
- Chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease often get overlooked.
- Racism, poverty, and geography shape outcomes as much as biology.
- Doctors aren’t trained to see these structural factors, leaving care biased and fragmented.
- Experts say we need better training, broader research, and integrated care to build a fair, resilient health system.
When talking about women’s health, we default conversations to biology, more specifically, reproduction, pregnancy, and hormones. But the reality is that women’s health is shaped more by what is happening around them than just by what’s happening with their bodies.
A recent 2024 systematic review in the International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences highlighted a huge blind spot in the medical system: education still isn’t preparing clinicians to recognise and respond to structural inequalities. Factors such as racism, poverty, and geography take front row seats when it comes to how women experience illness, access care, and respond to treatment.
This failure then shows up everywhere.
Why does the current health system fail women?
- There is a narrowing down of the definition of women’s health.
Women are too often seen through the lens of reproduction. While fertility, hormonal, and maternal health are critical, we don’t factor in the nuances of other conditions, such as autoimmune diseases, pain, and chronic illnesses, such as diabetes may have on a woman’s wellbeing. Many times, these conditions are intricately intertwined, having a huge impact on her quality of living.
- There have been no efforts to reduce the gaps in medical education.
Most medical training goes into the biological differences without embedding the structural competency into the training. This is usually seen through how the system inequities shape women’s health outcomes when they receive care. Without this lens, unconscious biases continue to creep into both diagnosis and treatment decisions.
3. Care pathways have remained fragmented.
Women’s health needs rarely fit neatly into single-specialty silos. Care, however, continues to remain compartmentalised. This means women who present with overlapping or complex issues are still falling through the cracks.
So, what is the way forward?
The good news is that these problems can be easily addressed. However, it will require bold changes in the next few years to redefine women’s health.
- We have to begin by reassessing medical education
Future clinicians must be mindful of the structural competencies as a core skill. Training shouldn’t only include assessing lab results and reaching a conclusive diagnosis; it should also build a curiosity for housing, cultural bias, and related health concerns a woman might experience.
- We also have to rethink research priorities
Women’s health research is still underfunded and only focused on reproduction. We need studies that address the full course of a woman’s life, from adolescent mental health to cardiovascular health in midlife and osteoporosis in aging. Evidence gaps later translate to poor care outcomes.
- We have to build integrated, patient-centered systems.
Care for specific needs shouldn’t be an “add-on” service. Health systems need to evolve to offer seamless, multidisciplinary care for women that reflects their realities. This should be from workplace health programs to community care and models for digital health innovations.
Why does this matter for the future of women’s health?
Women make up half the population and ~ 70% of the global health workforce. Yet, if you take a closer look, they continue to face worse outcomes when it comes to their health. Addressing inequalities in healthcare isn’t about fairness; it is about building stronger, more resilient health systems for everyone.
Women’s health is not a niche, as it is so often referred to. It is the foundation for healthier societies overall. The sooner we move away from outdated models and structural blind spots, the sooner we can deliver equity in healthcare for women worldwide.
References:
Study cited: Fougang, D. C., Mpofu, C., & Wepa, D. (2025). Towards health justice: Implementing structural competency in women’s healthcare education. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences, 22, 100819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2025.100819
