Annual count of women Chief Delegates

As the World Health Organization (WHO) commemorates its 75th anniversary, WGH presents the findings of our annual gender count of Chief Delegates, highlighting both progress made and enduring challenges in achieving gender equity at the World Health Assembly (WHA).

While it is commendable that almost a third of national delegations at the WHA are now led by women, this milestone must be viewed as just one more step towards an equal voice for women in global health decision-making.

The count reveals a promising 9% increase since 2022 in women occupying Chief Delegate positions, resulting in an overall representation of 32%. This takes the percentage of women just 1% above the pre-pandemic high point of 31% in 2017. However, considering women constitute the majority of the health workforce, the significant disparity in decision-making power—three men for every woman—underscores the urgency to do better.

“If leadership roles were allocated proportionally, assuming that women and men have equal merit, the representation of women in health sector leadership would align with their majority presence as 70% of health workers. However, the current scenario is strikingly different, with men constituting less than 30% of the health workforce but holding 75% of leadership positions. The default health worker is a woman, and the default health leader should be too.” says Dr. Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health.