Just days before the Gates Foundation announced a $2.5 billion investment in women’s health innovations, the largest in history, The BMJ published three commentaries exploring different dimensions of women’s health innovation that should help guide the field’s development.

According to the collection of articles from international and multidisciplinary groups of experts, we must look beyond technological innovation to advance women's health. Innovation can contribute to better health outcomes, but has not yet closed persistent gender and equity gaps, authors say. The authors also highlight the importance of women’s expertise and leadership driving the global innovation agenda.

Dr Jocalyn Clark, International Editor at The BMJ, answers your questions:

• Why did you publish the articles? 
  The field is growing so fast, we needed to shine a light on its many areas of promise but also our concerns. The women’s health innovation field—focused on improving investments in research and development, technological solutions, and sex and gender data—is aiming to close the women’s health gap. Globally, women spend 25% more time in poor health than men owing to conditions that affect them uniquely or disproportionately. The growing coalitions of private companies, community organisations, funders, and femtech founders bring energy, resources, and global scope. They may drive women’s health forward in ways that public institutions cannot alone. As Ru Cheng writes, building inclusive networks such as the Innovation Equity Forum is essential to maintain momentum, especially as public budgets shrink.

• Why should readers pay attention?  
  At the heart of this innovation agenda is a shift in power in who leads decision-making in women’s health. Fara Ndiaye argues that women are not mere recipients or deliverers of health innovations but must be architects of the solutions. When women define health innovations, care becomes more effective, equitable, and transformative.
  Innovation can't be merely technological. As Karla Unger Saldaña and colleagues urge, efforts in this space also need to advance sociocultural, health system, and policy innovations. Tech fixes alone won't solve deeply rooted inequalities. The barrier to better women’s health often isn’t tech—it’s political will.

• Next steps?
  As I argue in my editorial in The BMJ, women’s health is not only underfunded and under-researched, it lacks the political priority and urgency that only political solidarity and action can hasten. These new global coalitions and partnerships must recognise that success will depend on their ability to organise and advance political priority. Patriarchal systems must be challenged and women’s rights actively upheld, which alongside growing investments and development of innovations can advance women’s health globally.

Read the commentaries, editorial, and the announcement of The BMJ’s new partnership with the Gates Foundation here:

• Editor’s Choice: Upending women’s health. 

• Opinion: Reimagining women’s health is a global imperative

• Opinion: Reshaping research and development through women’s leadership

• Opinion: We need a broader perspective on innovations to advance a women and health agenda.