A Wake-Up Call for International Women's Day

International Women's Day (IWD) (celebrated on March 8) has been around for over a hundred years, as have many of the issues still impacting women's advancement. Since 1911, IWD belongs to all who care about women's equality. At the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158, which is roughly five generations from now, to reach full gender parity, according to data from the World Economic Forum. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action (theme for IWD 2025) emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. Talking about the status of women in Australian life sciences space, the article calls for an action for better health, great businesses and a stronger economy.

- Stuart Dignam

It is never lost on me or my team at MTPConnect that there is a paucity of funding allocated to women's health research. And by paucity, I mean an embarrassing dearth.

So the theme for International Women's Day of 'Accelerate Action' couldn't be more appropriate -- for gender and health equality.

As Australia's life science innovation accelerator, it's a theme we embrace at MTPConnect. It's embedded in our DNA.

The statistics are bleak.

On the research front, just five per cent of global R&D is allocated to women's health, with four of that five per cent focused on women's cancers, leaving just one per cent for all other conditions.

The industry perspective is just as stark.

Only 22 per cent of Australian startups are founded by women according to Deloitte Australia. Globally, from 2021 onward, the percentage of female founders has been steadily shrinking, according to Carta Inc's equity report.

Money for female founders is getting harder to come by too. Cut Through Ventures latest report into Australia's startup funding shows only 15 per cent of startup funding going to teams with at least one female founder, down from 18 per cent in 2023.

And while these startups are attracting early-stage seed funding, they are missing out on larger, later stage deals which hampers scale-up and commercial potential.

Even pitching for funds is getting harder.