In response to pervasive gender disparities throughout the healthcare system, Hadassah convened the Coalition for Women's Health Equity with the mission to create a well-coordinated and unified force to advocate for women’s health equity—from prevention and diagnosis, to treatment and cure. The Coalition for Women's Health Equity raises awareness about how health inequities adversely affect women and families throughout the United States.
Hadassah advocates for policies to ensure women's access to health care -- especially preventive health services that improve wellness and early detection of disease. Building awareness in cities across the country, our chapters organize educational women’s health events to discuss the importance of preventive health, from physicals and mammograms to maternal and heart health. Hadassah Advocates Get Results
Speak out! Our advocates work closely with key legislators to ensure that Hadassah's outreach is coordinated and effective, and that our priorities are at the top of the congressional agenda.
Representative llena Ros-Lehtinen (FL)
“Most folks believe that heart disease is primarily a man’s disease but as you know heart disease is the number one killer of women. A woman is 10x more likely to die from heart disease then breast cancer and advocates like you, and organizations like Hadassah and Women Heart, you are crucial in getting the word out to women about their own health and women specific disease risks. Your needed now more than ever.”
Representative Raul Ruiz, MD (CA)
"Unfortunately, women continue to face institutional barriers to care, harming their quality of life. We must work together, as a nation, to address these health care disparities and I thank Hadassah for their work to improve women’s health equity by hosting this Summit.”
Representative Jim Cooper (TN)
DOWNLOAD HIS LETTER TO HADASSAH ›
"Hadassah has been a real leader raising awareness that men and women are not treated equally in health research. Science needs to serve both men and women, and Hadassah's support for the Research for All Act will hep us reach our goals."
Representative Ami Bera, MD (CA)
DOWNLOAD HIS LETTER TO HADASSAH ›
"I greatly appreciate Hadassah's partnership in the effort to improve women's health. The efforts of Hadassah members to support [my bill, the] Women's Preventive Health Awareness Campaign, by making it a policy issue in the 'Day in the District' campaign has made a difference in this regard."
Hadassah also advocates on reproductive rights, research funding, caregiving, and genetic discrimination and privacy.
Reproductive Health
Hadassah has a long-standing commitment to a woman’s right to choose and control her own reproductive health care. Hadassah believes that women are proper moral decision-makers in this area, and that they should be free to make that decision within the context of their own religious convictions, in conjunction with a medical professional, and without interference from government. Hadassah also condemns intimidation and violence at women’s health clinics.
Read our Policy Statement on Reproductive Choice.
Women's Health Equity: Medical Research
A multitude of diseases are often misdiagnosed, or overlooked entirely, in women because medical research, diagnostic tools, and treatments are frequently based on male physiology. Even animal and cellular research subjects are overwhelmingly more male than female.
"Medical research that is gender-neutral or skewed to male physiology puts women at risk for missed opportunities for prevention, incorrect diagnoses, misinformed treatments, sickness and even death. "
—2014 report from researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital
Symptoms for many diseases do not present the same way in men and women, and too many research institutions still ignore the role of gender in medical outcomes. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, yet only 1/3 of research subjects are female. Without adequate participation in research trials, women are also vulnerable to dangerous drug reactions that could have been avoided.
Hadassah proudly advocates for policies to ensure that medical research -- from the most basic, cellular-level studies to late-stage clinical trials -- accounts for differences between the sexes and produces results that are safe and effective for both men and for women.
