Founded by Melinda French Gates, Pivotal accelerates social progress by removing barriers that hold people back.

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Focus Areas
Caregiving
Paid Family and Medical Leave
Centering Women and Girls of Color
Women's Political Power
Mental Health for Young People
Women and Tech Innovation
Special Initiatives
Women innovate and bring important points of view to diverse fields of work.
Women in the Workplace
Supporting women’s multifaceted health needs is a top priority.
Women’s Health and Well-being
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Investments
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Philanthropy
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Advocacy

Special Initiative

Women’s Health and Well-being

All around the world, women spend 25 percent more of their lives in poor health than men do—a consequence of the fact that the world has never made women’s health a priority. It’s time for new research, tools, and approaches to ensure women everywhere have access to the care they need to live full and healthy lives.

"There is no path to equality in a world that neglects women's health."

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Melinda French Gates
Philanthropist and Founder, Pivotal

The Challenges and Opportunities

A woman is preparing for an MRI scan in a hospital.

Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men do.

A visual representation of 700 deaths per day.

Every single day, the world loses more than 700 women to preventable deaths related to pregnancy or childbirth.

A worried woman sitting on the floor next to her bed.

Depression and anxiety are about 50% more common in women than men.

A pie chart representing less than 1%.

Less than 1 percent of global health research funding is allocated to women’s health conditions beyond cancer.

A bar chart showing the global GDP rising from $113.8T in 2025 to $128.8T in 2040.

Closing the women’s health gap would add at least $1 trillion to global GDP every year by 2040.

A woman holding her daughter while working on her laptop at the table.

When women are healthier, families, communities, countries, and economies are too.

Our Approach

From supporting organizations delivering life-changing, lifesaving care and services to closing funding gaps in research and development, we’re working toward a future where women’s health finally gets the attention and investment it deserves.

Action for Women’s Health: A $250M Global Open Call

Action for Women’s Health is a $250 million open call, managed by our partner Lever for Change, created to find and support organizations working to improve women’s mental and physical health.

After receiving applications from across the globe, we identified 80+ organizations based in 22 countries across six continents. From bringing reproductive services to women in rural areas to connecting women to culturally competent mental health providers, these organizations are working in innovative ways to deliver quality care women want and need.

Meet the awardees

A community nurse talks to three teenage girls about their health.

Photo by wilpunt/Getty Images

$100M Commitment to Accelerate Breakthroughs in Women’s Health

Through our $100 million partnership with Wellcome Leap, we’re working to close the funding gap in women’s health research. This joint effort aims to accelerate breakthroughs that will improve women’s health and well-being everywhere in the world, focused on issues and conditions that most impact women’s lives.

With Wellcome Leap’s proven model, which brings together a broad group of experts from different sectors and industries to pursue bold goals on ambitious timelines, we expect to see outcomes years—even decades—sooner than we would through other approaches.

Learn More

A female laboratory technician working with medical equipment.

Photo by sanjeri/Getty Images

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