Women and dementia policy: Redressing imbalance through gender transformative policies

Abstract Dementia is one of the greatest health challenges of our time. Every 3 s someone in the world develops dementia. There are already 50 million people living with it globally and this number is set to treble by 2050. Dementia disproportionally affects women on a global scale: more women than men develop dementia and a higher percentage of carers for people living with dementia are female. The impact of stigma and risk factors place an additional burden on women, who are also largely absent from research, data collection, decision-making, and policy development that may benefit them. This chapter will explore reasons for this imbalance and delve into how, through dementia policy, governments can take transformative steps to readjust the sex and gender balance toward equilibrium. We discuss the need for gender-based data, the important role of female leadership, and how to make transformative gender policy change. Our five key recommendations are to: • Close the gender-data gap • Increase gender-based research and clinical trials • Expand advocacy for gender-specific responses for people living with dementia • Encourage development of gender-transformational dementia policies • Promote inclusion of women leaders • Foster education of girls and young women.