The Alberta Women’s Health Foundation strives to uncover and address the many disparities and knowledge gaps that exist in women’s health. 

The fact is, women’s health research is an area historically underfunded and sometimes nonexistent. As a new initiative of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, the AWHF plans to #RefocusTheResearch and change this unfortunate truth.

Since launching on March 8, 2021, we have been hard at work fulfilling our mission to uncover these disparities, expand our understanding, and make meaningful positive change possible.

This International Women’s Day, on the one-year anniversary of our launch–March 8, 2022–we unveiled a new brand video entitled “We Are Not Equal.” 

Our goal with this video was to inspire us all to see the world a little differently—or, "to change and open minds," as stated by Jared Mauldin, the young man whose letter inspired the story.

Last fall, in November of 2021, we published our first thought leadership report, entitled “Finding the Fractures: The Pandemic, Women's Health Disparities, and the Path to Equity.”

For this effort, we launched a province-wide survey to better understand how the pandemic has impacted women in Alberta. 

Summarizing these results in our Finding the Fractures report, we bring together data and evidence of the current disparities in women’s health, uncover stories of women’s worsening mental and physical health, and detail their many challenges juggling medical appointments, childcare, and work commitments.

We invite you to read the full report, watch the video above, and share and discuss both within your circles:

But of course, the work is far from finished. 

We plan to continue pushing boundaries and doing what we can to close the many gaps we have been talking about since we started–and even those it may be difficult to say aloud.

We recently launched a new survey to understand the many ‘taboo’ topics in women’s health, ranging from fertility issues and menopause to painful periods and pelvic floor issues, and so much more. The survey will close on July 29th, 2022.

If you are interested in sharing your thoughts and experiences, please take our survey. We are encouraging people of all ages and all stages of life, across the full gender spectrum, to participate.

We are grateful for our many donors and supporters, and could not do the important work we do without you. If you would like to learn more, please visit the AWHF homepage.

If you feel inspired to donate, you can do so here: