Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men.
This isn’t a gap, it’s exclusion by design.
Women’s health is systemically designed out of research, out of data and out of funding systems. We're building the infrastructure to design it back in.
THE EVIDENCE
Everyone’s talking about the glass ceiling
but no one built the floor
No health infrastructure. No research. No data. No policy. No floor. This isn’t a blind spot, it’s infrastructure failure.
7x
Women are 7 times more likely to be misdiagnosed during a heart attack.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer of women.
*Source: New England Journal of Medicine, 2000
25%
Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men.
*Source: World Economic Forum report, 2026
<1%
Less than 1% of medical research funding goes to non-cancer women’s diseases.
*Source: Nature Reviews, 2024
8-10 years
is the average time women have to wait for an endometriosis diagnosis.
*Source: World Health Organization, 2025
23%
of women consider quitting their jobs because of menopause.
*Source: Simplyhealth, 2023
75%
of women face discrimination in the workplace due to their pregnancy or maternity.
*Source: Institut pour l’égalité des femmes et
des hommes, Belgique, 2016
Women’s health is a matter of public justice
Women’s health remains under-represented in research, underfunded relative to disease burden, and under-prioritised in policy.
Our goal is for women’s health to no longer be invisible in how societies, economies, and institutions function by 2035.
Themis is a European foundation leveraging the EU’s regulatory reach, research capacity, and democratic mandate to set a new global standard for women’s health infrastructure.
This is a coalition
Infrastructure isn’t built in silos, that’s why Themis is bringing together scientific research, philanthropic capital, and institutional power to create one integrated system where each reinforces the other. Research generates the evidence. Philanthropy funds what public systems won’t. Institutions embed change into law and practice.
Thémis exist to build what should have existed all along: the scientific, civic, and policy infrastructure that treats women’s health as a civic priority.
OUR APPROACH
Five pillars
One infrastructure
Most responses to women’s health inequity are fragmented. Thémis builds the pillars to connect them: participation feeds data, data feeds research, research feeds policy, policy feeds institutions, and culture feeds social change. This is infrastructure work. Structural. Replicable. And built for long-term impact.
Participate
Large-scale consultations transforming lived experience into research priorities and policy recommendations.
Measure
The first composite Women’s Health Index: tracking outcomes, access, and inequalities across geographies and life stages.
Research
Ethical data sharing, cross-institutional collaboration, and co-funded studies in chronically underfunded domains.
Translate to Policy
Evidence translated into legislative recommendations, institutional standards, and workplace realities.
Shift Culture
Art residencies turning data into culture that shifts public understanding.
OUR PROJECTS
Systemic solutions for systemic problems
Each project is powerful alone. Together, they’re an ecosystem built for systemic repair.
1. Women’s Health Index (WHI)
This white paper presents the first structured, comparative analysis of
national women’s health strategies or action plans across five member states in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), and identifies patterns in priorities, best practices, and
gaps.
2. Citizen Labs
Conduct large-scale participatory consultations that capture what women actually experience at home, at work, and in care systems. The first Citizen Lab consultation launches in Belgium, turning lived experience into evidence that shapes research priorities and policy recommendations.
3. Policy Labs
Sex & Gender Integration in Clinical Trials In partnership with Institut Pasteur and the Milieu Intérieur programme, this project works to embed sex and gender considerations into clinical trial design, addressing one of the most fundamental gaps in how medical research has historically excluded women.
4. Evidence-to-Policy Accelerator
The bridge between evidence and institutional change. The Accelerator transforms research and citizen data into policy briefs, legislative recommendations, institutional standards, and workplace realities. Evidence that just sits there is evidence that failed.
OUR FOUNDERS
Who’s behind Thémis?
Fatoumata Ly
Co-founder
Fatoumata Ly is the Co-founder of Themis and Founder and CEO of Ninti, working at the intersection of women’s health, economic performance, and systems change.
Through Themis, she is building a European coalition to close critical gaps in women’s health by advancing research, data infrastructure, and policy innovation. The initiative brings together leading scientific institutions, private partners, and public actors to drive scalable, evidence-based solutions. She regularly delivers keynotes and speaks at leading women’s health and corporate forums.
Stéphanie van de Werve
Co-Founder
In the past 15 years, she has been developing strong and high-impact programmes in various foundations and think-thanks. She has proven experience translating complex research and policy issues into actionable strategy and measurable impact. Stephanie is an expert in philanthropy and coalition building, Stéphanie leads Obama Foundation Philanthropic Partnerships in Europe. She knows how policy moves, how coalitions hold, and how institutions get built to last longer than a grant cycle.
Max Aniort
President of the Support Committee
As the co-founder and CEO of Le Collectionist, Max Aniort has developed extensive expertise in building international organizations and managing growth strategies throughout his career. A graduate of HEC Paris, he initially worked in the financial sector before turning to entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on operational excellence and the impact of business models. Driven by the systemic transformation goals championed by Thémis, he brings to the Support Committee his experience as a business leader, his network, and his strategic insight to help the association structure its ecosystem and amplify its message to policymakers.
Mobilizing Themis’s connectors and allies
Governance
Strategic Advisory Board
Leaders from research, civic tech, public policy and health innovation.
Coming soon
Scientific Committee
Epidemiologists, public health researchers and methodologists guiding evidence design.
Dr. Eveline Markowicz
Dr. Dado Kamara
Kirrily de Polnay
Catherine Giboin
Alyse Lopez Sam
Prof. Xavier Briffault
Sarah Chamieh
Herve Charnallet
Ethics & Data Governance
Independent oversight to ensure ethical standards and data integrity.
Coming soon
OUR SUPPORTERS
The people supporting the movement
Thémis is backed by a growing circle of ambassadors, early funders, and advocates who are helping amplify this initiative from day one. They’re the network that makes the launch possible.
Reshma Saujani
Mercedes Erra
Molly Ingersoll
Elizabeth Maloney
Aïssatou Seck
Darragh Duffy
Pashtana Durrani
Elizabeth Kuiper
Julie de Pimodan
Emmanuelle Indekeu
Yasmina Asrarguis
Jacqueline V. Twillie
Leonor de la Serna
Dehia Djahnine
Benedita Sampaio Nunes
Louise Colin
Roxane de Pelet
El Fatmioui Amale
Join the movement. Whether you want to fund or advocate, there’s a seat for you at this table.
WHY FUND THÉMIS?
Our partners
Because measurable infrastructure outlasts any grant cycle. Investing in Thémis means backing evidence-based ecosystems, scalable models adoptable across geographies, and long-term systemic impact that informs policy and practice.
Thémis works with research institutions, civic platforms, advocacy networks, private sector leaders and public institutions. Not as sponsors, but as co-builders. Every partner brings leverage. Every partner is accountable.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
Join the movement
Fund
Support the 1:1 community fund. Every euro donated goes directly to projects building the infrastructure women’s health has never had.
Follow
The latest on policy wins, research launches, events, projects and milestones. This is your front row seat for change. Take it.