Women spend approximately 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, yet a significant portion of this gap is preventable. While advances in treatments and medical innovation remain critical, the way healthcare is delivered plays an equally important role in shaping women's health outcomes. Research suggests that more than 1/3rd of the women's health gap is linked to shortcomings in care delivery, including delayed diagnosis, fragmented care pathways and inadequate screening and treatment. In response, the McKinsey Health Institute, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, and a consortium of healthcare leaders, has launched CARE for Women: Investing in Care Delivery to Improve Women's Lives and Livelihoods. The report highlights practical opportunities to strengthen care delivery, improve outcomes and unlock economic benefits by ensuring healthcare systems better meet the unique needs of women.
Women spend approximately 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, yet many of the factors contributing to this gap are preventable. While significant attention has been paid to advancing treatments and medical innovation, an often-overlooked, yet addressable factor is how care is delivered.
Research shows that over one third of the women’s health gap stems from shortcomings in care delivery, including delayed diagnosis, inadequate screening, fragmented care pathways and undertreatment. These gaps can prevent women from receiving timely, appropriate care, resulting in poorer health outcomes, reduced quality of life and lost economic opportunity.
Addressing these challenges presents a major opportunity for health systems worldwide. Strengthening preventive care, improving care coordination and ensuring healthcare delivery is responsive to sex- and gender-specific needs can help women live healthier lives while reducing avoidable healthcare costs and adverse outcomes.
To help accelerate progress, the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) and a consortium of more than 20 healthcare organizations and experts, recently launched CARE for Women: Investing in Care Delivery to Improve Women’s Lives and Livelihoods.
The report examines how improving care delivery can help close the women’s health gap and outlines practical actions for healthcare stakeholders. It highlights three illustrative care pathways where targeted interventions could significantly improve outcomes:
Across these pathways, the report identifies opportunities to strengthen screening, diagnosis, referral pathways, treatment and follow-up care, demonstrating how relatively targeted changes can generate meaningful health and economic benefits.
The report also introduces the CARE Framework, a practical approach for healthcare leaders and policymakers to advance women’s health through:
Closing the women’s health gap is not only a health imperative but also an economic one. By investing in better care delivery, health systems can improve outcomes for millions of women while creating broader benefits for families, communities and economies.