Lost in translation: the missing voices in women’s health research

Every October, Women’s History Month invites us to celebrate progress and reflect on the work that remains. The 2025 theme, moving forward, together, feels particularly urgent when we consider whose voices are still left out of women’s health research in Canada. Because if research cannot hear women and gender diverse people in their own language, how can it claim to represent their health experiences at all?

An invisible cost with visible consequences

Language barriers are among the most consistent and least acknowledged obstacles in Canadian women’s health research. Translation can consume nearly a third of project budgets, yet is rarely funded directly. This forces researchers into difficult trade-offs: shifting funds from trainees, limiting data collection or even excluding participants who do not speak English. For those who choose to prioritize translation and relationship-building, the result is often fewer measurable outputs and less visible productivity, even though these choices strengthen trust, inclusivity and long-term impact.

The differences in language are not only about cost. They also block the recruitment of already underserved populations, leading to a lack of evidence for these groups and, in turn, to gaps in health care access and treatment. This is especially true for pregnant women (particularly those with medical or social complexities or taking medications), those living in the North, or newcomers. Without dedicated funding, these communities too often become suspicious of research instead of embracing and benefiting from it.

Exclusion by omission 

The Inuit Perinatal Health Hub, part of the Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition, offers a vivid example. To truly reflect Inuit women’s priorities around pregnancy, birth and early parenting, women must be deeply involved in shaping the design and conduct of research itself. This requires ongoing translation — not only of surveys and interviews into Inuktut, but of planning, ongoing dialogue and decision-making throughout the entire research process, as well as the sharing of research findings. Without sustained support for translation, Inuit women’s voices risk being silenced or misrepresented. The barrier is not willingness to translate, but the absence of structural support to make such continuous, participatory engagement possible.

This problem is not limited to research in the Inuit Nunangat (the Arctic). Francophone women outside Quebec, Indigenous communities speaking Cree, Dene and many other languages, and newcomer populations across the country face similar challenges. When translation is treated as optional, entire groups are excluded from shaping the evidence that guides health programs and policy.

Why this matters for women’s health

Women’s health research is already underfunded in Canada. The Canadian economy absorbs billions in lost productivity due to preventable health conditions that disproportionately affect women and gender diverse people. Women remain far more likely than men to be misdiagnosed or to receive ineffective treatment, while female-specific conditions such as endometriosis and menopause remain severely under-researched. These gaps are compounded by structural barriers. Even attending consultation sessions can be out of reach without the right support. As a result, women’s perspectives are excluded at every stage.

At the same time, women in marginalized communities continue to face urgent, and often basic, health gaps which can carry devastating consequences, yet receive little research attention. Together, these realities reveal that the problem is not only a lack of studies on women’s health, but also systemic barriers that prevent women from shaping the research agenda itself.

When research excludes non-English speakers, the impact is compounded. The result is not only inequitable participation but skewed findings that misrepresent the diversity of women’s health realities across Canada. A truly multicultural country must fund research that benefits everyone, not just English speakers.

A structural barrier researchers know too well

For decades, researchers have been forced to make translation work within limited budgets. The trade-off is familiar: include fewer participants, simplify the questions or absorb personal costs. Those in the field know this as a longstanding barrier, yet the public remains largely unaware that the data they see is shaped by whose voices are left out.

By contrast, the humanities and social sciences (HSS) have taken steps to acknowledge translation as a legitimate and necessary cost. Programs such as the Scholarly Book Awards provide five large-scale translation grants each year — including one specifically dedicated to Indigenous languages — to scholars working in HSS. 

While it is a step in the right direction, the HSS model still places extra burden on researchers. Applying for additional grants specifically for translation adds to already heavy workloads, and with so few awards available, the need far outweighs the supply. 

Further, most of these grants are tied to translating final outputs such as articles and books, rather than supporting the ongoing translation required throughout the research process. This creates a tax on individual researchers who make translation a priority, often the very people most committed to inclusion, who themselves may already face additional barriers in academia. 

Health research deserves funding that makes translation a built-in part of the process, not an afterthought. Without a mandatory, separate allocation for translation in research grants, equitable participation will continue to rest on individuals’ goodwill and concessions.

Beyond a budget line

Translation is not an ‘extra’, nor is it optional. It is the foundation for accuracy, trust and inclusion. Without proper funding, the evidence that informs health care in Canada risks being partial at best. With it, we gain not only better data, but a stronger, more inclusive health system that reflects the realities of women and gender diverse people from coast to coast to coast.

This Women’s History Month, as we honour the women who worked tirelessly to be heard in politics, the workplace and the voting booth, let us also commit to hearing women in research — whether they speak Inuktut, French, Cree, Punjabi, English or any other language.

When translation is properly resourced, research becomes more accurate and inclusive. When it is not, entire communities risk being left out of the story.