Women’s health and productivity are tightly linked, but Canadian women spend 24 percent more time than men in poor health. More than half of the top ten conditions in the country affect women disproportionately and differently compared with men. For example, heart attack symptoms manifest differently, and 78 percent of early warning signs in women are missed. Canada needs a clear, national or provincial strategy to narrow this women’s health gap, say McKinsey’s Laurie Lanoue, Liza Vityuk, Lucy Pérez, Marie-Renée B-Lajoie, and Sandrine Devillard. Targeting specific diseases can improve health, reduce early deaths, and strengthen families and communities—in turn potentially boosting the country’s economy by $37 billion annually by 2040—a high-impact investment for the nation.
To read the article, see “Closing the women’s health gap: Canada’s $37 billion opportunity,” October 22, 2025.