Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world

While there is still a long way to go for women in global health to get the recognition, respect and relative conditions they deserve – at all levels and in all places – there are some notable breakthroughs.

International Women’s Day is always an opportunity to celebrate the contribution of women to our social, political, and economic wellbeing and development. With the world changing so profoundly in the past year during the covid-19 pandemic, it feels even more apt to stop and reflect on not just the achievements of all women, but the extraordinary contribution women have made as 70% of the health and social care workforce.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a covid-19 world.” At the moment, however, achieving an equal future in the healthcare sector is a distant dream, whether now or in a post covid-19 world. Women may deliver the majority of healthcare but, in general, they do not lead the health systems they know best. Women hold only 25% of senior leadership posts in healthcare, while making up 90% of nurses—many of whom have borne the brunt of long hours, mental trauma, and risk of infection in this pandemic, all while coping with surges of desperately ill patients.

Originally posted in the BMJ Opinion.

By Roopa Dhatt, Executive Eirector, Women in Global Health