The ‘Monumental’ Step Forward for Women’s Health

All the buzz around the White House’s executive order to advance women’s health research is simply excitement over what the future holds.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Last week, when President Joe Biden signed a sweeping executive order to expand and improve women’s health research, it was only a matter of hours before health professionals responded to the magnitude of the action.

“This is a monumental step forward for women and for advancing our health equity,” says Nicole Woitowich, executive director of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute and a research assistant professor in the department of medical social sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “This is really the work of advocacy that’s been done over the past several decades by myself, and many others who’ve highlighted the fact that women are underrepresented, understudied and our research underfunded.”

Women have historically been underrepresented in medical research. In February, the first lady and her husband launched the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Heal…