Introduction: Who Is FemTech For?

Abstract

In 2016, Ida Tin, the founder of Clue, a digital Danish menstruation application coined the term “FemTech,” a portmanteau of “feminine” and “technologies” that refers to the wide range of products designed with women’s digital health in mind. Prior to this, investments in feminine technologies totalled a mere 100 million (USD) worldwide (FemTech Analytics). In 2019, however, just three years after the phrase entered our vocabulary, FemTech was valued at 18.75B. FemTech now includes both hardware, such as wearable, ingestible, and embeddable devices, along with software; for example, digital applications and web-based platforms. These products are designed to reach a range of women’s health needs, including menstruation and ovulation tracking, diet and fitness, sexual health, pleasure, and wellness, contraception and maternal health, and, less frequently, tools for conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), menopause, and mental health. The industry is predicted to be worth 60 billion dollars (USD) by 2027 (Emergen, 2020). Yet while FemTech is a rapidly evolving and expanding global market, there remains very little research into the relationship between FemTech and health inequalities that arise as a result of social factors such as race, class, sexuality and ability, not to mention the vast geographical differences between dominant and emerging markets. In the academic literature, for example, little critique is given to how these forms of marginalization intersect but are overlooked in products that largely assume a white, heterosexual, affluent, childbearing, and able-bodied user.