Policy Report: The State of Women and Leadership in Global Health

Today, women hold around 70% of health worker jobs globally, over 80% of nursing and midwifery roles. Women’s work – paid and unpaid – forms the essential foundation for health, well-being and delivery of health systems.

Despite the contribution women make to health systems and supporting the realization of health for all, women hold only 25% of senior leadership roles in the sector. If leadership roles were allocated on merit then, since women are 70% of health workers, 70% of health sector leaders would be women. This is the opposite of the current situation where men hold 75% of leadership roles but are only 30% of health workers.

This gendered leadership gap is what we examine in this report, drawing both on global data and country case studies from India, Nigeria and Kenya.