First lady Jill Biden announced Monday that the Pentagon intends to commit $500 million to women’s health research as part of a broader White House push to increase funding for the study of women’s health.
Jill Biden attended a Clinton Global Initiative event alongside Chelsea Clinton to announce the new investment. The Defense Department money will fund research on conditions such as ovarian cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and musculoskeletal injuries and how they impact women differently.
“Since launching the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research last November, the First Lady has put the spotlight on the urgent need to close the gap in how we fund and approach women’s health research,” Vanessa Valdivia, press secretary for the first lady, said in a statement.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has quickly mobilized to make progress in less than year, and in the months ahead the First Lady will continue to push the work of this initiative forward, and build on the incredible momentum and enthusiasm we’ve seen across the public and private sectors,” Valdivia added.
President Biden signed an executive order in March directing agencies to strengthen research and data standards on women’s health with the purpose of better leveraging federal funding. It also directed agencies to prioritize funding for women’s health research and encourage innovation.
The same order directed the National Institutes of Health to spend $200 million on women’s health research, and it directed the Office of Management and Budget and the Gender Policy Council to assess gaps in federal funding for women’s health and identify potential changes.
Jill Biden joined a Cabinet meeting last week to speak about the progress agencies were making on addressing women’s health research.