Women leaders in global health
Authors: Zohray Talib, Katherine States Burke, Michele Barry
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2017)

It is disappointing and rather ironic to note the lack of gender parity in leadership positions in the field of global health. Women carry a disproportionate burden of disease, comprise a large portion of the global health workforce, and in many leading universities make up the majority of global health students, even up to 84% as reported by one university.1HRH Global Resource CenterResource spotlight: gender and health workforce statistics.http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/gender_statsGoogle Scholar, 2Downs JA Reif LK Hokororo A Fitzgerald DW Increasing women in leadership in global health.Acad Med. 2014; 89: 1103-1107Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar Yet, among the top 50 universities in the USA, women hold just over a third of global health faculty positions and a quarter of directorships in global health centres.2Downs JA Reif LK Hokororo A Fitzgerald DW Increasing women in leadership in global health.Acad Med. 2014; 89: 1103-1107Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar The dropoff is steep and concerning, from 84% of the student body to 24% of leadership positions. In the World Health Assembly women hold only about a quarter of leadership positions, despite comprising almost 75% of the health workforce in some countries.1HRH Global Resource CenterResource spotlight: gender and health workforce statistics.http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/gender_statsGoogle Scholar Dhatt and colleagues spoke out on this very issue in a correspondence3Dhatt R Kickbusch I Thompson K Act now: a call to action for gender equality in global health.Lancet. 2017; 389: 602Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (18) Google Scholar in The Lancet, calling on WHO leadership to take deliberate steps towards gender parity. What prevents the rise of women leaders? It's clearly not due to a lack of interest, but rather a consequence of bottlenecks and hurdles that stifle growth and limit advancement. Several factors have been identified: inadequate guidance and mentoring, difficulty balancing family responsibilities while meeting promotion criteria (especially mid-career), and overt bias and gender discrimination in the workplace.2Downs JA Reif LK Hokororo A Fitzgerald DW Increasing women in leadership in global health.Acad Med. 2014; 89: 1103-1107Crossref PubMed Scopus (71) Google Scholar In October 2017, Stanford University (Stanford, CA, USA) in partnership with the US National Institutes of Health and a number of leading academic and global health institutions will host a conference for Women Leaders in Global Health. This event will highlight accomplished and emerging leaders and will create a space for shared conversation to explore the challenges as well as the opportunities for women aspiring to play leadership roles in global health. The Women Leaders in Global Health conference (#WLGH17) aims to go beyond the call for parity at top leadership levels. The intention is to call for the advancement of women leaders at all levels of global health activity and to translate leadership intent into everyday actions—in communities, academia, non-profit organisations, scientific societies, boardrooms, and government. Women currently exemplify leadership in many ways. Many overcome daily obstacles to advance health in their communities as community health workers. Others persevere in hostile work environments striving for promotion and greater responsibility. Still others provide thought leadership for global health organisations. This conference will support the diverse career paths and activities of women in global health by highlighting both senior and emerging leaders and hearing their stories. A panel titled "Men who get it" will highlight how men can engage in promoting parity. Women in Global Health, an implementing partner of the event, defines their vision for gender parity as a goal of 50–50 representation in top global health leadership positions by 2030. As the gender gap in global health closes, what else will be different? We provide seven goals (panel).PanelGender Parity in Action•Women working at the grass roots, in communities around the world, should feel safe, respected and valued by their teams. Women should be compensated equally and have a voice in directing their work.•Women and men should feel empowered to have courageous conversations calling out gender bias when they see it in daily life and call for the translation of policy into everyday actions.•Global health classrooms, schools, and universities should reflect a gender balance in their leadership and teachers, and provide gender-sensitive pathways for recruitment, development, and promotion of faculty.•Mid-career or emerging women leaders in global health organisations including academia, government, and non-governmental organisations should be pro-actively mentored to increase the rate of promotion of female leaders.•Women who choose creative, non-traditional career paths in global health to balance life's responsibilities should be valued for their creativity and offered support to advance in their careers.•Evaluations of global health organisations, programmes, and activities should include metrics that assess gender parity *Gender parity refers to at least 40% and not more than 60% women/men. in leadership and key positions. Global health events and all meetings should be held accountable to the Women Leaders in Global Health Initiative's Event Organizer's Checklist, ensuring equal opportunity for men and women to contribute to global health dialogue.*Gender parity refers to at least 40% and not more than 60% women/men. •Women working at the grass roots, in communities around the world, should feel safe, respected and valued by their teams. Women should be compensated equally and have a voice in directing their work.•Women and men should feel empowered to have courageous conversations calling out gender bias when they see it in daily life and call for the translation of policy into everyday actions.•Global health classrooms, schools, and universities should reflect a gender balance in their leadership and teachers, and provide gender-sensitive pathways for recruitment, development, and promotion of faculty.•Mid-career or emerging women leaders in global health organisations including academia, government, and non-governmental organisations should be pro-actively mentored to increase the rate of promotion of female leaders.•Women who choose creative, non-traditional career paths in global health to balance life's responsibilities should be valued for their creativity and offered support to advance in their careers.•Evaluations of global health organisations, programmes, and activities should include metrics that assess gender parity *Gender parity refers to at least 40% and not more than 60% women/men. in leadership and key positions. Global health events and all meetings should be held accountable to the Women Leaders in Global Health Initiative's Event Organizer's Checklist, ensuring equal opportunity for men and women to contribute to global health dialogue.*Gender parity refers to at least 40% and not more than 60% women/men. In summary, the Women Leaders in Global Health conference at Stanford aims to stimulate a movement that supports women in all forms of leadership from communities to classrooms to global organisations. The women and men who will assemble will represent different cultures, geographies, and demographics. Events will provide opportunities to discuss actionable steps to bridge the gender gap at every level, as well as to network with mentors and mentees. Our expectation is that the conference, to be held next at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK will become an annual event to stimulate change both locally and globally, for women leaders in global health. We declare no competing interests. Gender myths in global healthWe commend The Lancet Global Health and in particular Zohray Talib and colleagues (June, 2017)1 for drawing attention to the paucity of women leaders in global health and the agenda they advance to achieve gender equality. Nonetheless, the authors lead with a persistent "gender myth"2 when they claim that "women carry a disproportionate burden of disease". Full-Text PDF Open AccessGender myths in global health – Authors' replyWe thank Sarah Hawkes and Kent Buse for their remarks on our Comment.1 They are correct in saying that men in post-transition countries bear a greater global burden of disease and live shorter lives than that of women. However, the reverse is true in the poorest of countries where, for example, maternal mortality remains very high.2 Moreover, although women live longer, they tend to have more debilitating chronic conditions, and self-reported health is worse in women worldwide.3,4 Full-Text PDF Open AccessGender myths in global health—a response to the responseThe promotion of women leaders in global health as outlined by Talib and colleagues1 is a commendable and important goal. My hope has always been that gender parity in this field will lead to a greater recognition of the enormous health burdens suffered by women in both the global North and South. With this in mind, it was with dismay that I read the letter Gender myths in global health2 and the authors' response (September issue).3 Full-Text PDF Open Access