Policy Action Paper: Delivered By Women, Led by Men
The report, produced by the WHO Global Health Workforce Network’s Gender Equity Hub, (co-chaired by WHO, and Women in Global Health), is a gender and equity analysis on the health workforce looking collectively for the first time at issues of leadership; decent work free from all forms of discrimination, harassment, including sexual harassment; gender pay gap; and occupational segregation across the entire workforce. It calls for gender transformative policies and measures to be put in place if global targets such as universal health coverage (UHC) are to be achieved. This report serves as an essential resource to all policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, educators and activists that must make it part of their core business to understand and effect change.
Key findings by thematic area
Overarching findings and conclusions
- Most of the 170 studies found and reviewed in this report come from anglophone high-income country contexts and are unlikely to be applicable to other contexts.
- There are gaps in data and research from all regions but the most serious gaps are in low- and middle-income countries. This is a major concern, since the most rapid progress in health is needed in low- and middle-income countries to reach the SDGs, attain universal health coverage and achieve the health for all targets by 2030.
- Widespread gaps in the data and literature were found in countries of all income levels on implementation research, application of gender-transformative policy measures, and good practice on addressing health system deficiencies caused by gender inequality.
- Major gaps and lack of comparable data were found in countries from all regions. Examples include sexual harassment and gender pay gap data.
- Studies were limited in methodological approaches. Few used an intersectional approach to examine how gender disadvantage in the health workforce can be compounded by other social identities such as race and class.
