Womens Health And Manifestos (WHAM): UK General Election 2024, a rapid voter information study

Background The UK 2024 general election manifestos publicly set out the political parties priorities for the eventuality that they are voted into government. We determined to evaluate whether already agreed, evidenced and promoted issues affecting womens health in the UK had been included in the major parties manifestos. Methods We curated a longlist of priorities and recommendations drawn from major womens health reports, white papers, national inquiries and health strategies published in the UK over the last 10 years which are publicly available and invited our public contributors to suggest additional topics. We selected the shortlist of womens health-related priorities - our top 15 asks - using a Delphi process. We then devised a scoring system whereby manifestos were marked against the 15 priorities with a maximum of 2 points for each priority. We tested inter-rater reliability on the 2019 Manifesto. Results Overall, the limited inclusion of prominent issues for womens health in party manifestos was disappointing across the board. There was little difference between most major parties coverage of womens health in their manifestos. All were limited. Most parties addressed two issues well: childcare and women returning to work after pregnancy; and violence against women and girls and the prosecution of perpetrators. Several other issues, including assurance that all policy is built in consultation with women; decriminalisation and access to abortion; and womens health hubs for reproductive, menopause and lifelong health, were considered by none or only one of the major parties. Discussion Womens health remains a fringe issue in UK politics, despite the efforts of patients, advocates and healthcare professionals to highlight the suffering that many women live with every day, and at particularly vulnerable and high risk periods of their life such as in pregnancy and the postpartum. Our analysis highlights the importance of developing previous efforts in womens health to strengthen existing infrastructure, collaboration and innovation. The next government should build on the work in progress, such as delivering the Womens Health Strategy (2022) rather than starting afresh.