Journal publication

The role of women's leadership and gender equity in leadership and health system strengthening

Gender equity is imperative to the attainment of healthy lives and wellbeing of all, and promoting gender equity in leadership in the health sector is an important part of this endeavour. This empirical research examines gender and leadership in the health sector, pooling learning from three complementary data sources: literature review, quantitative analysis of gender […]

Women leadership gender equity health systems cover

General

Recognition matters: only one in ten awards given to women

Receiving an award is an accolade. Awards validate and bring visibility, help attract funding, hasten career advancement, and can consolidate career accomplishments. Yet, in the fields of public health and medicine, few women receive them. Between seven public health and medicine awards from diverse countries, the chances of a woman receiving a prize was nine […]

Copy of the paper on health awards and gender

Cross-cutting

The importance of gender analysis in research for health systems strengthening

This editorial discusses a collection of papers examining gender across a range of health policy and systems contexts, from access to services, governance, health financing, and human resources for health. The papers interrogate differing health issues and core health systems functions using a gender lens. Together they produce new knowledge on the multiple impacts of […]

Cover of Gender analysis in health systems

Cross-cutting

Minding the gaps: health financing, universal health coverage (UHC) and gender

In a webinar in 2015 on health financing and gender, the question was raised why we need to focus on gender, given that a well-functioning system moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will automatically be equitable and gender balanced. This article provides a reflection on this question from a panel of health financing and gender […]

Financing

Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Tanzania: assessing gender mainstreaming on paper and in practice

Although gender mainstreaming has been long recognized as a strategy for addressing gender inequalities and associated negative health outcomes; its implementation has remained a challenge, even in the area of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). Despite recognition of gender in Tanzania’s political arena and prioritization of PMTCT by the health sector, there […]

Cover of paper on Tanzania PMTCT and gender mainstreaming

Cross-cutting

Psychosocial support for adolescent girls in post-conflict settings: beyond a health systems approach

Adaptive and adequately resourced health systems are necessary to achieve good health outcomes in post-conflict settings, however domains beyond the health system are also critical to ensure broader wellbeing. This paper focuses on the importance of psychosocial support services for adolescent girls in fragile contexts. Its starting point is that adolescence is a pivotal time […]

Cover of paper on Psychosocial support for adolescent girls post conflict

Health workforce

The gendered health workforce: mixed methods analysis from four fragile and post-conflict contexts

It is well known that the health workforce composition is influenced by gender relations. However, little research has been done which examines the experiences of health workers through a gender lens, especially in fragile and post-conflict states. In these contexts, there may not only be opportunities to (re)shape occupational norms and responsibilities in the light […]

Cover of the paper on the gendered health workforce in fragile and conflict affected settings

Cross-cutting

The foundation and consequences of gender bias in grant peer review processes

This commentary accompanies a paper by Tamblyn and colleagues that presents evidence from a cross-sectional study that shows the presence of gender bias in the grant peer review process in Canadian health research funding. Notably, female applicants with past grant success rates equivalent to male applicants were given lower application scores by reviewers, and male […]

Front page of paper on Consequences gender bias in peer review

Governance

Key Considerations for Accountability and Gender in Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

This article poses questions, challenges, and dilemmas for health system researchers striving to better understand how gender shapes accountability mechanisms, by critically examining the relationship between accountability and gender in health systems. It raises three key considerations, namely that: (1) power and inequities are centre stage: power relations are critical to both gender and accountability, […]

Cover of the paper on accountability in health systems and gender equity

General, Service access

“If it’s issues to do with nutrition. . .I can decide. . .”: gendered decision-making in joining community-based child nutrition interventions within rural coastal Kenya

Gender roles and relations play an important role in child health and nutritional status. While there is increasing recognition of the need to incorporate gender analysis in health planning and programme development, there has been relatively little attention paid to the gendered nature of child nutrition interventions. This qualitative study undertaken in rural Coastal Kenya […]

Front page of paper on nutrition, children and gender in Kenya