Despite the fact men have lower life expectancy than women and are at a higher risk of developing serious health conditions like heart disease and lung cancer, women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men. This is in part because women disproportionately experience stroke-related disability, ovarian and breast cancers, dementia, and autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), which have long gone without a cure.
At the same time, research and anecdotal accounts show that women often feel underserved and underrepresented in terms of the healthcare they receive. For instance, a study last year from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 29% of women versus 21% of men have felt dismissed by a healthcare provider, and nearly twice as many women as men reported feeling discriminated against by their doctors.
These experiences can have severe consequences beyond just a few bad visits at the doctor’s office: data show that women, particularly women of color, are misdiagnosed or receive delayed diagnoses across several diseases compared to men. Pervasive biases in healthcare play a major role.
The gender gap in chronic disease diagnosis and management is a nuanced issue interwoven with socioeconomic structures. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, especially considering the unique needs of trans or nonbinary individuals. However, one important step — especially for conditions that disproportionately affect those assigned female gender at birth — is to recruit and uplift not only more female clinicians, but also female scientists who can prioritize studying the challenges facing female patients.
Not only are they more likely to empathize with female patients’ experiences, but research also shows that diverse teams can help ensure that the benefits of research and care innovations are spread equitably. Without more female scientists and leaders, we can’t fully tackle health problems that most severely impact women.
Women’s Participation and Leadership in MS Research
Take MS — the field in which we predominantly conduct our research — as an example. Women are three times more likely than men to be diagnosed with MS, and women who have MS outnumber men by a ratio of nearly 4:1 — a gap that has only widened in recent decades. These disparities aren’t just limited to gender: a January 2024 study found that Black and Hispanic women with MS have more advanced disease progression and face greater challenges in pregnancy than white women.
And yet, we see a gender gap among those who study this disease and others like it. For instance, a 2022 study found that neurology is one of the most underrepresented specialty areas with female physicians as first authors on research papers. This is especially true in MS research.
Why does this matter? In our own work, we frequently see how impactful our research can be when we investigate the challenges most pressing for our center’s female patients. For example, cerebellar dysfunction in MS patients can progress independently of other symptoms, and many of our female patients report that gait and balance challenges make them feel less empowered to exercise or engage socially. With that in mind, one of our research focuses is mitigating cerebellar damage to increase quality of life and health-promoting behaviors. In turn, our female patients feel confident that they have a team of researchers who take their challenges seriously.
Female-driven research requires a strong female voice in patient care and inside the lab. Unfortunately, although the healthcare industry is dominated by women overall (74%), only 33% occupy a leadership position. Ensuring that women have a seat at the table in deciding what type of research to pursue is the most basic step we can take to ensure the quality of female healthcare. In doing so, the industry will see the ripple effect that female healthcare leaders have on tackling some of the world’s most challenging medical questions.
Turning Words Into Action
However, simply pledging to hire more women scientists or appoint more women to leadership roles is not enough. At every level of the medical establishment, decision-makers must take tangible action to formalize this commitment through targeted programs like scholarships and mentorship opportunities. These give women an early opportunity to pursue their scientific interests with the guidance of a female mentor who knows what it’s like to grow her career in research and in healthcare’s unique environment.
For example, my (Harris) PhD supervisor left for maternity leave shortly after I started my work with her. That was the first time I had a model for what it looked like to have a family and a successful career in science, which became one of the most meaningful parts of my PhD experience. To this day, she is still the only female boss I have ever had in research — and she inspires me to take very seriously the responsibility of mentoring young women who come through my lab.
Mentors aside, the ultimate key to ensuring women’s long-term success in health research relies on proactively eliminating systemic barriers. These steps include equitable compensation compared to male colleagues, and robust benefits that include parental leave and childcare support. While female healthcare leaders may most immediately feel the positive impact of these resources, they ultimately benefit every employee long-term.
While several factors are at play in the chronic disease gender gap, the industry can take a meaningful first step to close it by investing in female scientists. Without them, the lab lacks an essential perspective that informs research that will one day find cures for complex conditions like MS.
Violaine Harris, PhD, is a senior research scientist with the Tisch MS Research Center of New York. She joined the Tisch MSRCNY laboratory in 2004, where she has been developing stem cell therapy strategies to promote repair and regeneration in multiple sclerosis. Jamie Wong, PhD, is a senior research scientist with the Tisch MSRCNY. She joined the center in 2015, and has used her surgical expertise to develop a novel animal model for primary progressive MS (PPMS).
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