Jornal de Cuidados com a Saúde da Mulher
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Women in Global Health Persisting Challenges for Equity

Shakuntala Chhabra*, Aakanksha Shishugruha

Introduction: Women shoulder major functions of health system, still they experience discrimination, inequality, even violence in all the health disciplines globally. Although there is substantial evidence of economic, health, social gains by addressing inequalities in gender norms, women are underrepresented in positions of power, leadership, be it education, health care or research or administration and are undervalued too. Actually it should be equity, a matter of justice and rights in view of gender differences in body functions. Objectives: To know about present status of women in global health, in education for health, health care, research, health policies and management. Material and Methodology: Literature search was done for getting desired information as per objectives. Research studies, reviews, opinions in english language, whatever could be accessed were looked into with no special criteria. Self observations and experiences were added. Results: Women comprise around 70% of health work force for global health, quite a lot unpaid. But they are underrepresented in health disciplines in positions of power, in leadership positions, policy making, program management and specialized clinical areas such as surgical specialties. Globally in health systems women are undervalued and experience discrimination and suffer violence too. There is poor inclusion of women in medical research as main researchers. Also in research findings, gender related reporting is limited, which affects utility of results of global research for best of the use for societies around the world. Conclusion: Gender bias continues in all the aspects of health systems. There are barriers to full participation of women in global health. Collective action is needed in many areas for essential change.