Discourse / Discours : Research Priorities in Gender and Health

Abstract

This year we witnessed an unprecedented event, the creation and exponential growth of a national research institute devoted to the study of gender and health. The launch of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Gender and Health represented the culmination of directions recommended by research- and policy-influencing groups in Canada. Key international and national initiatives that provided a foundation for this Institute were the Canada-USA Women's Health Forum in 1996; the development of five Centres of Excellence on Women's Health, funded by Health Canada in 1996; and the creation of Wyeth-Ayerst and MRC-PMAC Clinical Research Chairs in Women's Health. Guiding documents included CIHR 2000: Sex, Gender and Women's Health (British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, 1999), A Women's Health Research Institute in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Working Group on CIHR, Gender and Women's Health Research, 2000), and Agenda for Research on Women's Health for the 21st Century (National Institutes of Health, 1999).