Dr. Vonda Wright

Most of my academic research, I too as an academic, is on subjects of musculoskeletal aging, but many years ago added a third circle of the whole health of a woman, and so sitting in this place

It fits directly into the mantra of my career, which has always been, I am going to change the way we age in this country and the world.

Because the tool that I bring to the table is the fact that if I save your mobility, I'm going to save you from the ravages of chronic disease.

And so the work that I do is not only educational, it's research, and it's now education of the world about these subjects.

I think the statistic that people don't realise on a day-to-day basis is that women are 51% of the population.

We're actually not a minority.

We're the majority.

And yet often our health, our healthcare access, the research treats us as if we're a niche product.

But we are the majority product.

We have to have this conversation because data show that of the $450 billion spent on research in this country alone, less than 1% is spent on women over 40.

And yet we are nearly 90 million people.

And we make 80% of all the healthcare decisions in this country for ourselves and everyone we touch.

And so even though when you look at

The long-term data, women are winning the longevity race here.

We're living an average of six years longer than men.

But as all of us talk about all the time, women suffer longer.

And that's primarily not only because of what you said, but the shocking statistic is that not until 1993 were women required to be represented in studies.

1993?

I mean, we were all far into our lives and research by then.

Isn't that shocking?