Why Healthcare Giant Haleon Is Taking Women’s Pain Seriously
Women’s healthcare needs are a long way from where they need to be, with many female-specific conditions underdiagnosed and misunderstood. One particularly infuriating inequity is the way that women’s pain is often minimised and disbelieved. Consumer health group Haleon, formerly part of GSK and the business behind leading global brands like Panadol, Advil and Voltaren, has taken up the cause of the gender pain gap and women’s health needs.
Tamara Rogers has been the global CMO since 2019 and she’s keen to use the platform of those global brands to tackle this thorny topic that’s as much about communications as it is about products. Dismantling ancient biases that go as deep as misperceptions around female pain isn’t easy, but Tamara hopes that platforms like Haleon’s #ListentoPain campaign and Advil’s ‘Pain Equity Project’ will start to move the dial.
It’s a multidimensional mission as the pain gap and deficiencies in women’s healthcare intersect with other identities like race, age and culture. But by platforming diverse voices within the business, Tamara hopes that they can make meaningful change.
LBB> This International Women's Day, you're shining light on the disparity in the level of healthcare experienced by women and men - it's a topic that has certainly been covered in the media for some years now, so how bad is the situation still, and why do you think we've still got so much ground to cover?
Tamara> Health exclusion can happen for many reasons, from bias and discrimination to factors such as not knowing how to manage a health condition. At Haleon we are determined to break down the barriers to better everyday health for everyone – irrespective of gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and disability.
We’re investing in research to build a clearer picture of what’s holding people back. Our latest studies show that a gender health gap persists across many countries, so this is an issue that governments and policymakers are grappling with the world over. For example, we recently supported the second phase of Economist Impact’s Health Inclusivity Index, which revealed clear gaps in women’s health and mental health provision. Globally, one in four women under 50 lack access to a range of women’s health supports, while 20% do not have access to mental health care.
LBB> What is Haleon and its brands doing to mark IWD?
Tamara> Building a strong culture of diversity, equity and inclusion is critical for Haleon. It is both integral to and an enabler of our purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity and links directly to our health inclusivity ambitions. So supporting women and advancing their career progression, health and wellbeing really matters – with our global parental and caregivers leave policies for colleagues being great examples of this.
This week, our Women@Haleon Employee Resource Group organised a number of events to encourage discussion and allyship around promoting women’s careers and interests. I was thrilled to be part of an internal roundtable and Q&A session focused on inspiring inclusion, which was broadcast to all colleagues globally, while our sites around the world held local celebrations and workshops.
It was great to see our colleagues convene to mark this important day of recognition, but we are very mindful of the need to collectively champion women’s talents, achievements and interests every day, not just on International Women’s Day!
LBB> To what extent is disparity in care a communications issue - whether that's healthcare providers having their own biases or women not being empowered with the vocabulary and education to take control of their own health?
Tamara> It’s a great question, and our research sheds light on the importance of raising awareness of the barriers and biases faced by women when advocating for their own health needs.
For example, our Haleon Pain Index found that one in two women feel stigmatised when in pain. Given the impact of women’s pain and the barriers they face when seeking treatment, there’s a huge opportunity to raise awareness of the issue and help our consumers find their voice.
We understand everyone’s experience of pain is different, with our recent #ListentoPain campaign equipping healthcare professionals with the knowledge and tools to better understand their patients’ pain and have better conversations. Using information from the Haleon Pain Index, we established five different patient profiles, describing their relationship with and the handling of their pain. These profiles can help healthcare professionals maximise those precious minutes with patients and personalise their approach to pain management.
LBB> Some of these biases, particularly the ones around a perception of 'fragility' or that pain is somehow something that is 'natural' for women to bear, go deep and are really ancient. So it's no small challenge! What insights have you discovered about the best way to address or shift these deep-rooted cultural norms or to change behaviours?
Tamara> Societal pressure on women in pain is exacerbating their feeling of loneliness. The Haleon Pain Index concluded that women are worried about assumptions others may make about them and their pain, which is becoming a source of social anxiety.
Societal and cultural norms are indeed a factor here – with the Index revealing that 58% of women globally felt their pain had been treated differently, not believed, or discriminated against – compared with 49% of men.
This is where we firmly believe in the role of community healthcare programmes in bridging the gap between government policy and healthcare delivery, and indeed this is a key finding of Economist Impact’s Health Inclusivity Index.
LBB> Within Haleon, how are marketing teams and R&D teams collaborating to make sure that both the products are there and the comms issues are tackled?
Tamara> As a company built on deep human understanding and trusted science, and with a strong portfolio of category-leading brands, we are uniquely positioned to empower people to better self-care.
Close collaboration between our R&D, marketing, and commercial functions is key to achieving this. Over the past year, we’ve held several sessions where our colleagues from our consumer insights and marketing teams share their deep understanding of what’s impacting our consumers, customers, experts and markets – such as menopause and the gender health gap – so that we can innovate to address unmet consumer needs.
LBB> Of course there's a huge moral reason to take up this cause but it also seems that there's a big business case for it with, essentially, half the population being massively underserved. To what extent does it represent a missed opportunity and missed revenue for the healthcare sector?
Tamara> Women’s health is a sizeable growth opportunity and it’s fair to say that it’s been overlooked in the past – by both the public and private sectors. That’s something we want to change as part of our broader health inclusivity ambition and by working through our purposeful brands. To drive systemic change however, partnerships need to be forged across the entire health ecosystem, and there’s a critical role we can play in that.
LBB> Haleon's stable of brands is pretty diverse, can you talk me through some examples of projects that have tackled the disparity?
Tamara> There are many examples of targeted health inclusivity campaigns led by Haleon around the world. Some highlights which spring to mind include our Centrum brand in the US which is supporting an English and Spanish-language helpline for new mothers in partnership with Postpartum Support International (PSI), an organisation that supports women and their mental health.
LBB> The healthcare gap seems to be something that's found around the world but I'm curious how that gap manifests in different ways in different countries and cultures?
Tamara> The reasons why women face barriers when accessing healthcare vary from country to country. So we tailor and adapt our health inclusivity brand campaigns depending on a community’s specific need.
Theraflu’s rest and recover campaign is a perfect example of this. In response to more than 28 million workers in the US continuing to go to work while sick or having to sacrifice wages to recover, our Theraflu brand founded the Rest and Recover Fund, through which we reimbursed 1,500 sick days and empowered three million people to advocate for sick leave policy. We’re excited to expand the success of the campaign to Poland where there’s a societal expectation for women to continue working while they’re unwell.
LBB> How important is it to consider intersections between sex and other identities or characteristics when tackling healthcare disparities - e.g. in the UK we know that some health outcomes are much worse for Black women than White women?
Tamara> It’s absolutely vital given the bias and prejudice which continues to persist within society. The Haleon Pain Index showed that 59% of people of colour said their pain had been treated differently, not believed or discriminated against versus 48% of White people. We also saw a generational divide, with 70% of Gen Z saying their pain had been treated differently, not believed or discriminated against, compared to 40% of Baby Boomers.
We’ve been taking action on bias and prejudice through Advil’s Pain Equity Project in the US and its ‘Believe My Pain’ campaign which is focused on highlighting the issue of pain inequity in Black communities.
LBB> To what extent has platforming diverse voices and talent internally helped Haleon on its journey to prioritise women’s health needs as well as those of other marginalised groups?
Tamara> Ensuring our business reflects the diversity of the communities who rely on our products every day is critically important. We have activated four brilliant Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) focused on gender, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and disability, to create strong employee communities which gather to advocate for change while providing a platform to celebrate our diverse voices, backgrounds and experiences across the business. A powerful example of this in action is our Women@Haleon ERG, which I sponsor, and which played a key role in the creation of our Menopause Statement launched internally to colleagues last year.
