Market Failures in Women’s Health: Systemic Undervaluation and Paths to Reform

Background: Despite medical advances, persistent disparities in women’s health remain under addressed across healthcare systems, research priorities, and innovation pathways. This paper argues that many of these gaps reflect market failures–instances where economic systems fail to allocate resources fairly or efficiently. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted using structured searches across major databases and reference lists. Seventeen empirical studies published between 2003 and 2025 were included based on relevance to gender-specific health disparities and structural or economic explanations. Results: This review identifies major drivers of underinvestment in women’s health: information asymmetries, the public good nature of foundational research, stigma that distorts demand signals, and biased investment patterns in venture capital and insurance markets. Across the included articles, we analyzed how these failures manifest in clinical settings, such as the underdiagnosis of conditions like chronic pelvic pain and insomnia, and the neglect of high-burden issues such as endometriosis, fibromyalgia, and menopause related disorders. Furthermore, we found that structural factors —such as gender bias in medical training, exclusion from clinical trials, and lack of women in leadership—compound market dysfunction. Conclusion: The market failure framework was adopted to discuss the findings across studies, but it has limitations. Some health needs lack profit incentives or do not fit easily into economic models. Issues rooted in stigma, sexism, or cultural silence often require solutions beyond market reform. As such, this article proposes recommendations that combine economic and policy responses. By identifying how systemic neglect in women’s health stems from identifiable economic failures, this paper offers a novel lens for shaping health policy and resource allocation to advance gender equity.