Women dominate the world health care workforce, but they generally do not lead it, a new policy paper shows.
According to the World Health Organization, about 70% of global health and social jobs are held by women, who make up nearly 90% of the nursing and midwifery workforce. However, women only hold a quarter of senior leadership positions in the field.
‘The leadership gap in health can only be closed by addressing the systemic barriers women face,” according to the policy action paper, which was released by WHO in June.
The paper comes at an important time, as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened employment for women worldwide. It also revealed another gender leadership gap: pandemic planning. The paper, authored in March, estimated that 85% of national COVID-19 response task forces have a membership of mostly men.
A nurse speaks to a young patient during a deworming and vaccination campaign in Hondurus in 2014. Despite making up most of the global public health workforce, women lag behind men in leadership roles in the field, a new paper says.
Photo courtesy Sabin Institute/PAHO via Flickr Creative Commons
That gender gap may have cost lives. During the pandemic, women political leaders were statistically more effective at managing pandemic responses, the paper noted. While there are only 12 women as heads of government worldwide, the countries they lead were typically faster to implement preventive policies to reduce COVID-19 spread, leading to fewer deaths.
Beyond the pandemic, global health is losing out on women’s talent, perspectives and knowledge, said the paper, which called for challenging privilege and power imbalances based on gender.
The paper called for a framework to build a foundation for equality, address social norms and stereotypes, tackle work-place systems and culture, and enable women to achieve.
A significant part of realizing change is dispelling stereotypes about leadership, the paper said. Zero-tolerance policies for workplace bullying and harassment can change professional culture and reduce harm to women, among other measures. The paper shares checklists for leaders, men, women, publishers and media to support gender parity in health and care sector leadership.
For more information on the paper, “Closing the Leadership Gap: Gender Equity and Leadership in the Global Health and Care Workforce,” launched by WHO’s Global Health Workforce Network’s Gender Equity Hub, visit www.who.int.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
