Global Leaders Confront $1.5 Trillion Cost of Gender Violence, Menopause Earnings Gap, and Democratic Erosion

Foreign Policy's HerPower Forum convened on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly to map the widening fault lines of gender equity — from a $1.5 trillion annual toll of violence against women to a newly quantified earnings penalty for menopause, to the dismantling of $50 billion in global aid. Across 11 sessions, presidents, ministers, lawmakers, and researchers laid out what's being gained, what's being lost, and what it costs.

• Panel pegs global cost of gender-based violence at $1.5 trillion — about 2% of world GDP — and calls for upstream prevention investment
• New research reveals 7.4% earnings drop for women whose menopausal symptoms are medically recorded; UK and Rhode Island pass landmark legislation
• Open Society Foundations commits $300 million pairing economic and civil rights to counter democratic erosion
• European Parliament President Metsola unveils vote-delegation reform for new mothers — 47 years in the making
• Prosper Global CEO describes $50 billion hole left by USAID dismantling, with 80% of funding now redirected to crisis response
• Congresswoman Jayapal targets Pentagon's $1.5 trillion budget after eight failed audits, pushes universal childcare
• UN Secretary-General candidate Ibaki pledges 50/50 gender parity in the Secretariat, citing Ecuador-Peru peace as proof women negotiators deliver

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The $1.5 Trillion Problem: Violence Against Women as Economic Policy Failure

The basics: UN Women estimates that violence against women costs the global economy roughly $1.5 trillion per year — approximately 2% of GDP. National-level studies range from 1% to 6% of GDP. The panel framed the question as a choice: pay for consequences or invest upstream in prevention.

Why it matters: Countries that funded gender-responsive budgeting linked to prevention — Fiji among them — saw measurable reductions in intimate partner violence, demonstrating that economic policy can directly reduce harm.

Where things stand: Abigail Erickson, Chief, UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and Girls, laid out the fiscal trade-off, arguing that gender-based violence is fundamentally a human rights issue but also one governments can address through budgeted prevention action plans. Countries with well-resourced plans saw a 2.5% decrease in intimate partner violence.

Dr. Valeria Esquivel, Employment Policies and Gender Specialist, International Labour Organization, highlighted Latin America's national integrated care systems as a replicable model. "The Latin American countries have championed and implemented what they call national integrated care systems. It's a system because it comprises several care policies, care services, regulations, labor market policies, with the idea to redistribute care," she said. Feminist movements drove these reforms, she emphasized, and their defunding threatens both service delivery and democracy.

Dr. Esquivel warned against fiscal austerity that cuts care spending: "A deterioration of care services not only impacts well-being, but goes against productivity and economic resilience." She stressed that care investments generate short-term employment and long-term inclusive growth, and called for sustained public financing.

Erickson underscored that women's rights organizations are often the frontline service providers in gender-based violence response — making their funding a matter of public safety, not just advocacy.

What's next: ILO Convention 190, which addresses violence and harassment in the workplace, continues to gain ratifications globally, providing a legal framework for the economic arguments both speakers advanced.

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The Menopause Penalty: 7.4% Earnings Drop, Medical Curriculum Gaps, and a Legislative Wave

Why it matters: With 1.2 billion women projected to be in or past menopause by 2030, the panel revealed a stark reality: the economic, clinical, and workplace dimensions of menopause remain almost entirely unaddressed by policy.

Where things stand: Professor Gabriella Conti, Professor of Economics, University College London, presented her Menopause Penalty research using Norwegian and Swedish administrative data. "A woman whose symptoms are recorded in the healthcare sector, 4 years later after this, she has an earnings penalty which is 7.4% lower than the woman of the same age whose symptoms are recorded later," she said. The mechanisms include reduced hours, labor force exit, and increased disability insurance uptake. She is building a Menopause Penalty Atlas across countries.

Prof. Conti also shared the impact of a Swedish public television campaign about menopause: "Women went to Google and they Googled menopause and the Google searches spiked. We see the women who were visited by a doctor after the show had the greater recognition of their symptoms." The campaign led to higher hormone treatment uptake and positive economic outcomes for the women it reached.

Member of Parliament Carolyn Harris, of the United Kingdom Parliament, described her own experience: "I was on antidepressants for 8 years believing I had mental health issues because I had a reason to. I'd lost my son and there was every reason that I should have a mental health problem." She did not learn she was menopausal until years later. MP Harris achieved free or £20/year HRT prescriptions, workplace duty-of-care legislation, and mandatory health checks in the UK. She cited a staggering gap: "In the UK, 41% of medical schools, that's nearly half of the medical schools, do not teach menopause on the curriculum."

State Senator Lori Urso of the Rhode Island State Senate described her strategy for passing the state's Menopause in the Workplace Bill — a Fair Employment Practices Law. "Part of the strategy of passing our Menopause in the Workplace Bill, which is the Fair Employment Practices Law, was to get senior male senators to sign on to the bill," she said. After Rhode Island's passage, active menopause-related legislation nationally jumped from 12 bills to 70. "Menopause is a movement, not a moment, that's my mantra," Sen. Urso said.

Christine Roth, Executive Vice President of Global Product Strategy and Commercialization, Bayer, highlighted the legacy of a misinterpreted Women's Health Initiative study that created a clinical void lasting decades. Only 1 in 14 new doctors feels equipped to support menopausal women, she noted, calling for better clinician training, diverse treatment tools, baseline data, AI applications, and research beyond pharmacology.

What's next: The legislative momentum suggests menopause workplace protections may follow the trajectory of parental leave — state-by-state adoption preceding potential federal action.

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Open Society Launches $300 Million Initiative Linking Economic and Civil Rights

Why it matters: The initiative targets care infrastructure, healthcare access, and state-level policy experiments to counter rising wealth gaps and democratic erosion — filling a space left by federal inaction.

Where things stand: Laleh Esfahani, Managing Director, Open Society Foundations, described a common playbook in democratic erosion: courts capitulate, elections are disregarded, media and civil society are sidelined — and women are targeted first. "Women do 3 times the unpaid work that men do, so that they are short on time, power, and money even before the state has taken away a single right," she said.

The $300 million commitment is inspired by FDR's Second Bill of Rights and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign. Esfahani quoted Roosevelt: "Hungry and jobless people are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." Practical grantmaking includes funding care bills of rights — encompassing universal home care and abortion access — and supporting community infrastructure like Mexico City's "Utopías" centers. In Colombia, the foundation supports Bogotá's care blocks. "Within a 15-minute walk from anywhere in Bogotá you can get all essential services in one physical facility," she said.

OSF is also funding women's political leadership, women peacebuilders in the Sahel, and AI-assisted education for Afghan women and girls.

What's next: The foundation's strategy prepares state-level policy blueprints — on revenue reform, safety nets, and care rights — designed for federal implementation when political conditions shift.

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Metsola's Vision: Structural Inclusion Over Quotas in European Politics

Why it matters: Women hold top positions in four of five EU institutions for the first time, but female representation in national parliaments has stalled. The European Parliament's vote-delegation reform provides a concrete model for other legislatures.

Where things stand: European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the first woman to hold the position in 20 years, described the institution's rule change: "We've changed the electoral rules. That means that female members of the European Parliament who are either pregnant or have just given birth can delegate their vote, meaning that no member will ever be forced to opt out of her democratic responsibilities just because she's starting a family." The reform was 47 years in the making.

President Metsola took a firm stance against quotas as a mechanism, advocating instead for 50/50 gender representation on electoral lists. "I do not want a woman who is elected to be seen as having only been elected because of a mechanism that put her there. I would like women who are elected to be seen as those who beat their male counterparts. Simple," she said.

In conversation with John Haltiwanger, National Security Reporter, Foreign Policy, President Metsola addressed Europe's security landscape. She discussed democratic backsliding driven by disinformation, the EU's regulation of platforms, and Europe's response to Russian hybrid warfare. On Ukraine, she was unequivocal: "If it's peace without justice, peace without accountability, and peace without territorial integrity, it's no peace at all."

She called for Europe to take responsibility for its own security after years of complacency, positioning Ukraine's fight as a fight for collective European freedom.

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Prosper Global Rebrands Amid $50 Billion USAID Void

Why it matters: With 300 million people needing humanitarian assistance globally, the dismantling of USAID removed roughly $50 billion from the system — an amount CEO Jada Doyin McKenna of Prosper Global compared to the cost of the Iran war.

Where things stand: The rebrand from Mercy Corps to Prosper Global reflects a philosophical shift. "Mercy Corps was founded in the '80s in that old-school paradigm of people jumping in from America or wherever, bringing goods to people, saying that I'm merciful to you. It's just the exact opposite of the way that we work," McKenna said. Ninety percent of staff live in the communities they serve, operating across the DRC, Kenya, Syria, Ukraine, Indonesia, and Colombia.

A survey of 1,100 people across six countries found prosperity defined in communal terms — neighbors having enough, children playing freely — rather than wealth. But the barriers are real: "Over 60% of respondents in all countries had gender-related barriers as part of that barrier. In one country, it was as high as 83%," McKenna said.

The USAID loss has shifted 80% of Prosper Global's funding to crisis work from a prior 60/40 split with development programming. McKenna called the survival-vs.-development binary a "false choice."

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Jayapal Targets Pentagon Spending, Pushes Universal Childcare

Why it matters: The debate over U.S. national spending priorities is sharpening as the Pentagon requests $1.5 trillion while failing consecutive audits — and domestic investments in childcare, wages, and healthcare remain stalled.

Where things stand: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) discussed passing three House War Powers Resolutions on Iran, each with growing Republican support — four, then seven Republicans voting with Democrats. She also sits on the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees.

On the Pentagon budget, Rep. Jayapal was blunt: "This is the only federal agency that has never even passed an audit. It has failed 8 audits. And yet the president this year asked for $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon." She argued most money goes to defense contractors rather than troops, veterans, or cybersecurity technology.

Rep. Jayapal cited research that women negotiators increase lasting peace agreements by 20% and called for repealing the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force. On domestic priorities, she said: "I was going to say universal childcare because that is what I worked on as chair of the Progressive Caucus." She also prioritized raising the $7.25 federal minimum wage — unchanged since 2009 — paid leave, and Medicare for All. She predicted Democrats would take back the House and described plans to reverse Trump administration policies and pursue accountability.

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Secretary-General Candidate Ibaki: 50/50 Parity and the Ecuador-Peru Model

Why it matters: Five of eight candidates in the UN Secretary-General race are women — a first in the organization's 80-year history. Ambassador Ivonne Ibaki, a former Ecuadorian diplomat, grounded her candidacy in a proven peace model.

Where things stand: Ambassador Ibaki recounted the Ecuador-Peru peace process, where she was the only woman negotiator. A 100-year border dispute was resolved through personal friendship between presidents Fujimori and Mahuad, producing lasting peace since 1998. "We used to have around $200 million in trade between the two countries, and we were still enemies, and the diplomatic relations were not good. Now we have over $4 billion in trade," she said.

Her motivation is personal. Raising children in Beirut during the 1982 Israeli bombardment, her daughter asked: "Mommy, are we going to die?" Ambassador Ibaki recalled: "I said, no, Tatiana, we're not going to die. And I promised myself that if we survive, I'm going to dedicate my life for peace."

She rejected being labeled "Washington's candidate" despite her friendship with Trump, emphasizing independence. On the Secretariat itself, she was direct: "I will make sure that it's 50/50" — pledging gender parity in UN positions, special envoy roles, and field operations.

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Care Economy, Conflict, and Middle Eastern Women's Workforce Barriers

Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, ESCWA, outlined the structural barriers keeping women out of the workforce across the Middle East and beyond. "6 out of 10 answers for why women are unable to leave the home to look for jobs was really because they were expected to do more at home," she said, citing ILO data.

The region's instability compounds the challenge: "We live in a region, the Middle East, where 210 million people are in conflict, like 43% of the region." Fiscal tightening during conflict disproportionately cuts childcare and nursery funding — the very services that could unlock women's participation. One-third of women in the Middle East lack employment or skills, and lending discrimination requires higher collateral from women despite lower loan delinquency rates. Dr. Al-Mashat called for flexible working hours, paternal leave legislation, and startup ecosystems, stressing that SDG 5 on gender equality is behind schedule with 2030 approaching.

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EU Pay Transparency Directive Faces Headwinds Despite €2 Trillion Case

Roxana Mintzatu, Executive Vice President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, European Commission, drew a direct connection between women's economic disempowerment and gender-based violence, arguing economic empowerment is a root-cause intervention.

She defended the EU Pay Transparency Directive — which requires companies to disclose remuneration regardless of gender — amid political attack. "The Pay Transparency Directive, the one that acts very specifically to make sure that women are paid equally with men for the same role has been under questioning, attack," VP Mintzatu said, noting it has been characterized as a bureaucratic burden for two years.

The economic case is substantial: "If we are able to close the gender gap, we are able to bring 10.5 quality jobs on the market, on the labor markets, to increase by €2 trillion the gross domestic product," she said. The EU has also set a target of 1 million girls in STEM by the end of next year and advocated embedding gender equality "by design" into all policies.

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Bulgaria Bids to Become Europe's Connectivity Gateway

Dr. Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria, positioned her country as a critical infrastructure link between the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Europe — sandwiched between the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts. "We see ourselves as a gateway to Europe of connectivity from Caucasus and Central Asia, but also through the Gulf as well," she said.

She called for completing railroad connectivity from Saudi Arabia through Turkey to Bulgaria and addressing bottlenecks in Europe's electric grid and transport networks. The European Commission president announced Bulgaria will host a regional connectivity summit next year.

At 36, Minister Petrova-Chamova represents a generation of Bulgarians who studied abroad after EU accession and returned to serve. She called for women leaders to build mutual support networks: "We need to have more female gangs — not in an aggressive way, but we need to get a sense of not being against anybody, but being for each other."

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• Forum opening: Diana Marrero, Chief Partnerships Officer, Foreign Policy, noted Afghanistan's new decree stripping women of basic rights, Chile's appointment of an anti-abortion minister, and the Trump administration's expansion of the global gag rule to block foreign aid for DEI — balanced against progress including Colombia becoming the first Latin American country to ban FGM and South Korea expanding its gender equality ministry.
• Closing remarks were delivered by Claudia Romo Edelman, CEO and Founder, Sotol Romo.