Women Working Well is a global initiative helping women, managers and organisations have better conversations, create practical support and build healthier, more inclusive workplaces.
REAL EXPERIENCES. REAL CHANGE.
Symptoms can affect work before there is a diagnosis. Healthcare appointments can affect attendance. Treatment can change capacity. Trying to remain productive can affect life outside work. Poor workplace responses can increase psychological pressure.
The consequences can reach further than the immediate health issue — into income, confidence, relationships, caring, career progression and whether a woman remains in the workforce at all.
It can be shaped by what happens between health, healthcare and work.
Symptoms · Diagnosis · Treatment · Side effects · Surgery · Recovery · Ongoing management
The health experience can be visible, invisible, diagnosed, changing—or still without an answer.
Healthcare · Understanding · Communication · Disclosure · Human response · Workplace systems · Psychosocial conditions
Recognition, access to care and the first workplace response can change what happens next.
Capacity · Attendance · Performance · Mental wellbeing · Income · Career · Relationships · Caring · Participation · Retention
The consequences may reach far beyond absence, including the energy and opportunities available outside work.
Women of reproductive age worldwide are estimated to be affected.
WHOWomen are estimated to be navigating menopause while employed.
ILOWomen spend more time in poor health compared with men.
McKinsey Health Institute / WEF analysisMore than half of the women's health gap occurs during working ages 20–70.
McKinsey Health Institute analysisThey don't tell us enough about what happens to women along the way: Were they believed? How long did answers take? Did they disclose? Were they supported? Did their work change? Did they leave altogether?
That's why we're asking.The impact is not only measured in healthcare. Women's health can affect workforce participation, productivity, income, retention and the ability to remain fully engaged at work. Across countries, the scale is becoming increasingly visible.
World Economic Forum and McKinsey Health Institute modelling estimates that closing the women's health gap could add at least US$1 trillion to the global economy annually by 2040. More than half of the health gap occurs during women's working years, corresponding to around 80% of the estimated GDP impact.
SOURCE: World Economic Forum × McKinsey Health InstituteGlobal modelling of investment in closing the women's health gap.
SOURCE: WEF × McKinsey Health InstituteThe projected economic impact of closing the gap by 2040 was modelled as equivalent to 137 million women accessing full-time positions.
SOURCE: WEF × McKinsey Health InstituteA 2025 WEF/MHI blueprint estimates that closing gaps across nine selected women's health conditions could unlock this amount annually by 2040.
SOURCE: WEF × McKinsey Health Institute, 2025Estimated annual economic impact of unmanaged menopause symptoms, including about C$237 million in lost employer productivity and approximately 540,000 lost working days.
SOURCE: Menopause Foundation of Canada / Deloitte Canada analysisA 2025 UK Government literature review reports an estimate of approximately £1.5 billion annually due to unemployment associated with menopause, plus £191 million from absenteeism and £22.4 million from presenteeism. The review also notes important limitations and evidence gaps.
SOURCE: UK Department for Work and Pensions, 2025The European Parliament notes that women of menopausal age are the fastest-growing workforce demographic and account for around 11% of the G7 workforce.
SOURCE: European Parliament, 2026Productivity is not only about sick leave. It can include presenteeism, reduced hours, lost income, leaving work, difficulty progressing and the capacity to stay fully engaged while managing health. That is why Women Working Well looks at the space between women's health, healthcare and work — not simply whether someone showed up.
Figures are presented in the currencies and terms used by their original sources. They describe different populations, methods and outcomes and should not be added together as a single global cost estimate.
A healthcare waiting list does not pause a woman's working life. Symptoms, appointments, uncertainty, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment, financial pressure and recovery can continue alongside the everyday expectation to keep working.
Women Working Well builds the bridge. You don't need to have all the answers — and you don't have to cross today.
You don't need to have all the answers.
I was trying to find answers while trying to keep working. Symptoms affected daily life, yet the healthcare journey did not always provide a clear explanation. When the answers are uncertain, explaining what is happening at work becomes even harder.
Working in workplace health and safety, he could see what happened when a woman whose health was affecting work entered a workplace that was not equipped to understand or respond — especially when she was still searching for answers herself.
The problem wasn't only health.
That question became part of the reason for The Global Women and Work Study.
We're asking women around the world about the connection between health, healthcare experiences and working life — including experiences where there may never have been a clear diagnosis.
No jargon. No pressure. A clear next step for women, the people who support them and organisations responsible for safer work.
Make sense of what's happening and prepare for a conversation — in your own time.
Start privately →Build the confidence to listen well, respond respectfully and take useful action.
Explore manager support →Strengthen psychosocial governance, practical systems and respectful workplace culture.
Explore organisation support →You don't need to have every answer. You do need the confidence to listen without judgement, understand what's being asked and respond with care.
Respectful work depends on more than an individual conversation. Women Working Well connects lived experience with practical psychosocial governance, manager capability and visible action.
Understand what women experience across work design, leadership and culture.
Equip managers to respond consistently, respectfully and within clear boundaries.
Connect feedback, risk controls and governance so issues do not stay invisible.
We offer evidence, practical tools and pathways — not pressure. Women decide what feels right, who they speak with and when they are ready.
Take part in the research, explore support or learn more about the evidence behind Women Working Well.
www.womenworkingwell.workSelf-awareness on one side. Human understanding on the other. A woman should not have to deliver the perfect conversation to receive a respectful response.
Participation will be voluntary. Inca Safety is supporting the Women Working Well initiative with time, resources and infrastructure at no cost to participants. The survey is not a commercial lead-generation activity.
Multilingual participation is planned, with additional language versions to be introduced progressively and reviewed to preserve the intended meaning of the survey questions.