The Society for Women’s Health Research (SWHR), a national non-profit organization based in Washington DC, is widely recognized as the thought leader in research on sex differences and is dedicated to improving women’s health through advocacy, education, and research.

SWHR was founded in 1990 by a group of physicians, medical researchers and health advocates who wanted to bring attention to the myriad of diseases and conditions that affect women uniquely. Women’s health, until then, had been defined primarily as reproductive health.

Women were not routinely included in most major medical research studies and scientists rarely considered biological sex as a variable in their research.

SWHR advocates for greater public and private funding for women’s health research and the study of sex differences that affect the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease; encourages the appropriate inclusion of women and minorities in medical research studies; promotes the analysis of research data for sex and ethnic differences; and informs women, health care providers, and policy makers about contemporary women’s health issues through media outreach and periodic briefings, conferences and special events.