Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Beyond representation: women at global health conferences

2019; Elsevier BV; Volume: 393; Issue: 10177 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32854-x

1474-547X

Esther Schroeder, Connor Rochford, Maike Voss, Sabine Gabrysch,

Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology

Demands to improve the representation of women in global health are not new, and diverse social movements have been striving to advance the agenda.1Jones CM Gautier L Kadio K et al.Equity in the gender equality movement in global health.Lancet. 2018; 392: e2-e3Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar, 2Newman C Chama P Mugisha M Matsiko C Oketcho V Reasons behind current gender imbalances in senior global health roles and the practice and policy changes that can catalyze organizational change.Glob Health Epidemiol Genom. 2017; 2: E19Crossref PubMed Scopus (14) Google Scholar Recently, The Lancet has contributed to efforts to raise the visibility and recognition of women in global health.3Clark J Hussain S Slawecki E et al.Canadian Women in Global Health #CWIGH: call for nominations.Lancet. 2018; 392: 121-122Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar These efforts share the common pursuit of equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities for all genders, and are advocating that the interests, needs, and priorities of all are considered. At global health conferences and events, unequal representation is considered the manifestation of gender inequity, and the target of many gender advocates. Critiques often focus on so-called manels—all-male panels that not infrequently talk about issues that disproportionately affect women. Although change does take time, it rarely comes fast enough. As an example, the World Health Summit, which convened in October, 2018, for the tenth time, has made conscious efforts to support more equal representation of conference participants through scholarships and sponsorship of relevant organisations, and promoting female leadership. Gender parity now exists among participants, and the joint keynote with the Grand Challenges annual meeting included two female heads of state, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway. However, despite these commitments, the share of female speakers was 31% in 2015 and still only 32% in 2018.4World Health SummitWorld Health Summit Program.https://www.registration-whs.com/Program/WHS2018Date: 2018Date accessed: October 18, 2018Google Scholar Although only five of 50 panels were manels, only 19% of general sessions and 8% of plenary sessions achieved gender parity in speakers, and only 25% of session chairs were women (figure). This reflects the reality that leading voices in global health policy and research are still a small, closely connected network of mostly western, male, senior individuals.5Srdihar S Katz R Supporting new and diverse voices in global health.https://blogs.plos.org/globalhealth/2018/07/supporting-new-diverse-voices-in-global-health/Date: July 2, 2018Date accessed: October 18, 2018Google Scholar Many ministers and senior leaders from the global south are also male. Of the 11 agencies leading the global action plan for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 only three are led by women. Notably, one of these agencies, the Global Financing Facility, ultimately reports to the World Bank, which is led by men. Global health remains dominated by male perspectives, and opportunities for influence, impact, and financial decisions are not shared equally. Achieving social change is not without struggle. Calls for no more manels are challenging for event organisers and yet still do not go far enough. Generations of structural inequities have resulted in fewer women holding high-level positions of leadership. When these women receive an invitation to an event, this is usually one of many they are considering. Inviting the younger generation, not only established leaders, to conference panels could be part of the solution. This change necessitates altering current expectations that surround high-level policy conferences. Regardless, achieving meaningful gender equality requires much more than equal representation at conferences. Even when sitting on panels, women panellists often have less talk time, both during presentations and audience question and answer time, or can be subject to bullying behaviour by male chairs; inequalities are both covert and overt. These inequalities range from outright interruptions to being the receivers of so-called mansplaining.6Solnit R Men explain things to me. Guernica.https://www.guernicamag.com/rebecca-solnit-men-explain-things-to-me/Date: Aug 20, 2012Date accessed: October 18, 2018Google Scholar Given that global health events aspire to convene leaders and representatives from science, politics, business, and civil society, the responsibility must be shouldered by all in the global health community, not only those who are convening the events. Achieving equal impact and influence of women in global health must be a collective target. Strategies and tactics are well documented and include: (1) all actors supporting one another to overcome the bystander effect; (2) presenters suggesting to event organisers female colleagues who might not have been asked, with a commitment to intersectionality; and (3) men in global health signing a gender parity representation pledge or participating in initiatives such as Male Champions of Change or the UN Women's HeforShe Campaign. However, unconventional approaches must also be tried.7Sinclair A Leadership for the disillusioned.Melbourne Rev. 2007; 3: 65-71Google Scholar The SDGs are ambitious and efforts to achieve SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) are inextricably linked to SDG 5 (gender equality).8Benson Wahlen C Achieve gender equality to deliver the SDGs.http://sdg.iisd.org/commentary/policy-briefs/achieve-gender-equality-to-deliver-the-sdgs/Date: July 6, 2017Date accessed: October 18, 2018Google Scholar The equal impact and influence for women in global health is one crucial step in the journey to the change we ultimately seek: good health for all. To move from representation to impact and influence, individuals in organisations should develop and support accountability measures by making gender disaggregated data available. External actors should evaluate global health conferences, with qualitative and quantitative measures such as gender and diversity disaggregated data on organising committees, speakers, moderators, and participants. This could be made public on websites and form part of evaluation or impact targets of organisations, taking reasonable expectations into account. Finally, advocates should consider working with conference organisers to help redefine the pedagogy and content of events, moving beyond the so-called captains of industry approach to leadership, and opening up opportunities for women and men in different positions of organisations to be invited to events. We declare no competing interests. Equity in the gender equality movement in global healthIn recent years, social media campaigns aiming to showcase women working at the forefront of global health have resulted in lists like 300 Women Leaders in Global Health.1 This movement inspired a global organisation called Women in Global Health (WGH) that promotes gender equality in global health leadership. The momentum and support of this movement are spreading with multiple initiatives to acknowledge, research, and act on gender bias and discrimination in the field of global health, including The Lancet's call for papers for a special issue on women in science, medicine, and global health to explore best practices for change. Full-Text PDF