Meeting the Moment: Investing in Women’s Health

Women’s health remains under-researched and under-funded, with recent policy and budget disruptions further setting back progress. Investable pathways across asset classes can offer tangible ways to advance women’s health while also creating significant economic impact.

Exposing Gaps in Women’s Health

There is growing recognition of the extensive unmet needs in women’s health and a deeper understanding of the chief sources of their morbidity and diminished quality of life. Yet women’s health discourse and funding still tend to skew toward fertility and reproductive care, which draw the bulk of capital from private investors. Only 4% of global biopharma research and development is directed to women-focused health conditions,¹ even though women are at greater risk of leading diseases.²

Women are 2x more likely to experience depression, 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed than men following a heart attack, and 2x more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

A woman’s health is shaped by the surrounding society and environment—the social determinants of health. For example, there are preventable disparities in ovarian cancer detection and survival rates by race and ethnicity, insurance coverage, socioeconomic status, and geography. White women have higher rates of ovarian cancer than Black women, but Black women have a 20% higher risk of late-stage diagnosis and 18% higher mortality rate. Further, nearly half of all U.S. counties do not have practicing obstetrics-gynecology (OB-GYN) physicians,^3,4 who often provide primary and preventive care for women across their lifespans.

Why This Moment Matters

Spotlight on Rhia Ventures

Rhia Ventures* is a social impact organization focused on improving reproductive and maternal health outcomes by mobilizing private capital at the intersection of racial equity, women’s health, and financial and social returns. Rhia uses a mix of capital alongside aligned strategies, such as technical assistance, to advance reproductive health access and racial equity. For example, the Rhia Ventures impact-first fund RH Capital has invested in more than 20 women’s health startup companies. Rhia evaluates each investment using its proprietary Health Equity Assessment and Rating Tool (HEART framework) across four impact pillars: improved access, affordability, innovation, and systemic change.

Rhia Ventures works to support women’s health at varying points in the investment cycle. The organization is launching a catalytic capital fund to support high-impact women’s health efforts, especially pre-seed startups and community-led organizations in women’s health not suited for venture or philanthropic funding. For example, the fund might help launch an independent birth center in a community where Medicaid cuts forced a major health system to discontinue OB-GYN services. Beyond funding, investees receive practical support in business modeling, investment readiness, governance and compliance, policy navigation, and building peer networks. Rhia Ventures partners with public market investors to advocate for corporate responsibility regarding reproductive and maternal health, seeking to influence company behavior. This involves having direct conversations with companies, participating in shareholder meetings, and filing shareholder proposals.

Rhia Ventures believes that to be effective, health equity strategies should incorporate the perspectives of individuals and communities who have directly experienced health inequities. Rhia Ventures convenes a Community Advisory Council of clinicians, researchers, public health leaders, and grassroots organizations to help identify capital gaps and provide insight from the field to shape practice and advocacy.

The Landscape of Investable Opportunities

Every $1 invested in women’s health yields about $3 in economic growth, rising to $3.50 in high-income countries, driven by the anticipated gains in productivity of a healthier female workforce.⁶ Opportunities to advance women’s health span asset classes and sub-thematic topics, including investing in:

• Large cap companies seeking to use artificial intelligence responsibly to mitigate algorithmic bias in healthcare technology.
• Municipal bonds tilting toward community health supporting low-income communities.
• Early-stage venture capital investing in companies in women’s health or the “care economy,” enabling access to quality childcare and eldercare services.

Investors can use their shares to encourage public companies to engage on a variety of topics related to women’s health and health equity—from mental health to consumer product safety to reproductive rights—as illustrated by resolutions from recent proxy seasons.

Engaging companies on women’s health issues

For individuals and organizations interested in exploring investment opportunities to advance women’s health, please contact the Sustainable Investing team at Glenmede. To learn more about supporting Rhia Ventures’ shareholder advocacy work, please contact their Corporate Engagement team (corporate.engagement@rhiaventures.org). For more information on Rhia Ventures’ HEART framework, visit https://rhiaventures.org/heart.

*This section on Rhia Ventures was co-authored by Glenmede and Rhia Ventures. Information in this section should be attributed to Rhia and has not been verified by Glenmede.

1 “Funding Research on Women’s Health,” Nature Reviews Bioengineering 2 (2024): 797-798, https://www.nature.com/articles/s44222-024-00253-7.

2 Moutinho, S., “Women Twice as Likely to Develop Alzheimer’s Disease as Men—but Scientists Do Not Know Why,” Nature Medicine 31 (March 2025): 704-707, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03564-3.

3 Chen, V., et al., “Geographic Disparities in Obstetric Care in the United States,” Obstetrics & Gynecology 10 (September 2025), https://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/fulltext/9900/geographic_disparities_in_obstetric_care_access_in.1362.aspx.

4 Long, M., et al., “Access to OB-GYNs: Evaluating Workforce Supply and ACA Marketplace Networks,” KFF, July 10, 2025, https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/access-to-ob-gyns-evaluating-workforce-supply-and-aca-marketplace-networks/.

5 “Burke, S., et al., “A New Vision for Women’s Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health,” National Academies (2025), https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/28586/chapter/1.

6 World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute, “Closing the Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity to Improve Lives and Economies,” World Economic Forum, January 2024, closing-the-womens-health-gap-report.pdf.