International Women's Day 2025

IWD 2025: #AccelerateAction

The IWD 2025 campaign theme was #AccelerateAction: a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activity that positively impact women's advancement, and to support and elevate their implementation. Significant barriers to gender equality remain, yet with the right action and support, positive progress can be made for women everywhere.

Watch a recap of all of our events below:

3 March 2025: Beyond the Bleed

Beyond the Bleed: Panel Discussion chaired by Chloe Stevens

Many people receive only one or two lessons about periods in school, and if you’re male, you may not have had any at all. Without proper education, how can we distinguish between a normal and abnormal period?

The lack of awareness can have serious consequences, affecting women’s quality of life and delaying the diagnosis of conditions like endometriosis.

At this exclusive event to celebrate International Women's Day, this panel discussion explored what constitutes a normal period, the signs of abnormal menstruation, and conditions such as heavy bleeding and endometriosis.

Joining the discussion were Professor Ertan Saridogan, Professor Joyce Harper and Dr. Jessica Farren, as well as representatives from Wellbeing of Women, who are leading the “Just a Period” campaign to improve menstrual health education.

This in-person event took place at The Theobald Lecture Theatre, 86-96 Chenies Mews, London, WC1E 6HX, with a public audience of approximately 60 people.

3 March 2025: Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me This?

Performance by Professor Joyce Harper and Dr Lucy van de Wiel

In this exclusive performace to celebrate International Women's Day, Professor Joyce Harper (Professor of Reproductive Science, EGA IfWH/UCL) and Dr Lucy van de Wiel, (Lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine, Kings College London) presented a tour of human reproduction.

This show was originally performed to a full house at Paradiso in Amsterdam in July 2024. Professor Harper and Dr van de Wiel discussed reproductive anatomy, the menstrual cycle, fertility, infertility, egg freezing and menopause.

It is a celebration of our (non) reproductive bodies and how we navigate the new reproductive options that are made available to us.

This evening event took place at 33 Queen Square Lecture Theatre, The Institute of Neurology, 33 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, with a public audience of approximately 100 people.

4 March 2025: Inheritance

UCLH Arts & Heritage presents Inheritance: An Exhibition by Jill Mueller and Paloma Tendero.

In Inheritance, London-based artists Jill Mueller and Paloma Tendero respond to their experiences with inherited genetic mutations: a breast cancer gene mutation (BRCA1) and polycystic kidney disease (PKD). Through their personal stories, Jill and Paloma tap into universal themes, reflecting on the human condition and the inherited narratives that shape us. Their artworks touch on ideas related to family, biological inheritance and emotional transformation; the dualities between health and illness; connections between the body and natural world; and the complex decisions we face around preventive health care.

Following on from last year’s talk about their practices for International Women’s Day, Jill and Paloma presented their Exhibition and Q&A session at the Street Gallery, and shared their creative approaches and the ideas connected to artworks they created in response to their medical experiences.

The exhibition was hosted by UCLH Arts in the Street Gallery, at University College Hospital. Established in 2005, UCLH Arts are committed to providing a welcoming, uplifting environment for patients, visitors and staff using a varied and stimulating arts and heritage programme. UCLH Arts is a multi-award winning creative health programme which goes above and beyond to deliver improved patient and staff outcomes through the arts in its widest definition.

This in-person event took place at The Street Gallery, University College Hospital, 235 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BU, at full capacity.

About the Artists

Jill Mueller is an American-British interdisciplinary artist whose practice brings together visual arts, creative writing, story, and research. In her work, she weaves together documentary and imaginary worlds to explore issues related to health, our relationship to nature, and how we make meaning of our experiences. She holds an MA in Art and Science with distinction from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and is an Honorary Lecturer at University College London’s Institute for Women’s Health. 'See Me Through This,' a collaborative project with photographer Maja Daniels that explores Jill's experience with a breast cancer gene mutation, was featured in the Financial Times Weekend Science & Photography Issue and was a finalist for the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize at Duke University's Centre for Documentary Studies.

Website: www.jillmueller.com
Instagram: @jillmariemueller

Paloma Tendero is a Spanish-born visual artist who works across photography and sculpture, exploring themes around genetic inheritance, hereditary illness, identity, and cycles of life. Paloma holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from Complutense University in Madrid and an MA in Photography from London College of Communication, where she won a mentorship prize wither project Inside Out. She has exhibited widely and was selected for several artist-in-residence programmes, including Sarabande, the Alexander McQueen Foundation. Recent group exhibitions include “Headstrong: Women and Empowerment” at the Centre for British Photography; PhotoLondon: “Writing her own Script”; “Body Language” at Messums Gallery; and “A Picture of Health” at Arnolfini Arts Centre.

Website: www.palomatendero.com
Instagram: @palomatendero

5 March 2025: Women in Early Modern Medicine

International Women's Day Online Lunchtime Lecture with Penny James

"Hidden in Plain Sight: Women in Early Modern Medicine"

Despite being formally excluded from the medical profession until the end of the nineteenth century, early modern women carried out a range medical work including midwifery and dispensing remedies to the sick.

This presentation introduced new findings from a survey of more than 7000 medical texts from the Royal College of Physicians Library published before 1714 to reveal women’s use of medical texts – as readers, authors, and publishers – throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

The evidence from these books has been hidden in plain sight as traditional library cataloguing procedures were more likely to include provenance information about men than about women. This presentation was one part of an effort to reintroduce these women to the historical record.

This online event took place on Wednesday 5 March and was attended by approximately 100 people.

Watch a recording of the lecture below:

About the Speaker

Penny James

Penny James has a clinical background in obstetrics and gynaecology, and a PhD which focused on maternal immunity and preterm birth. She is currently working on a London Arts and Humanities Partnership (AHRC) project using early (pre-1714) printed material in the rare book collection at the Royal College of Physicians. The project aim is to identify evidence of women’s ownership of Tudor and Stuart medical knowledge.

5 March 2025: Be Prepared for Menopause

A team at UCL run by Professor Joyce Harper and Dr Shema Tariq are developing the UK Menopause Education and Support Programme – called InTune. This programme is being co-designed with the public and will involve two parts: Be Prepared for Menopause for everyone to learn the basics about menopause, and the Perimenopause Programme for those going through perimenopause to gain education and support.

At this exclusive event to celebrate International Women's Day, Shema and Joyce presented Be Prepared for Menopause: an interactive session made up of 18 short videos by UK experts in menopause covering what is menopause, the symptoms, diagnosis, lifestyle, management and life post menopause.

This in-person event took place at The Theobald Lecture Theatre, 86-96 Chenies Mews, London, WC1E 6HX, with a public audience of approximately 60 people in attendance.

UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health Master's student, Rosalyn, filmed a roundup of this lecture, which you can watch below:

6 March 2025: Women's Birth Choices - Who Decides?

As more women delay childbearing and the complexity of pregnancies rises, we face a troubling paradox. While MBRRACE reports continue to reveal high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity rates, national guidelines often prioritize higher intervention rates to mitigate poor outcomes. Meanwhile, calls for personalized care plans grow louder, but the NHS’s limited resources make true personalization a challenge.

Recent reports on Birth Trauma shed light on the often-overlooked emotional toll of such interventions, leading many women to lose trust in maternity care services and explore alternatives, such as free birthing.

This panel discussion in honour of International Women's Day 2025 with Arezou Rezvani (Consultant Midwife at UCLH), Dr Jo Modder (Consultant Obstetrician at UCLH), Ana Esquerdo (Consultant Midwife at UCLH) and Komal Khuti-Dulaart (Chair of Maternity and Neonatal Voice Partnership at UCLH), explored the complex interplay between medical necessity, women’s autonomy, and systemic constraints, asking the critical question: When it comes to birth choices, who really decides?  

This in-person event took place at The Theobald Lecture Theatre, 86-96 Chenies Mews, London, WC1E 6HX, with a public audience of approximately 60 people in attendance.

UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences student, Rusyda, filmed a roundup of this panel discussion, which you can watch below:

18 March 2025: Women's Health in 4D

Professor Bola Grace's Inaugural Lecture for her appointment of Honorary Professor of Practice at University College London, EGA Institute for Women's Health entitled 'Women’s Health in 4D: Data, Devices, Diagnostics, and Diversity. Crosspollinating ideas across industry and academia', took place on Tuesday 18th March 2025, at the Gideon Schreier Room at UCL Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, LG17, London WC1H 0EG. 

This was followed by a drinks reception in the Foyer area at Bentham House.  

There were 100 people in attendance, with present and previous colleagues, friends and family, as well as approximately 30 people joining the event online.

The lecture was introduced by Professor Anna David and Professor Judith Stephenson made the closing remarks.  Professor Grace's lecture was followed by a drinks reception in the Foyer area at Bentham House. 

Professor Grace's Inaugural Lecture also formed part of UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health's  exclusive International Women's Day 2025 events.

Watch the video below of UCL Institute of Health Informatics student, Sandrine, who shares her three key takeaways from Professor Bola Grace's Inaugural Lecture on Women’s Health in 4D.