GENDER AND
HEALTH
Keerti Bhushan Pradhan
keerti@aravind.org
The Challenge
“The goal of achieving equality between
women and men is based on principles of
human rights and social justice.
Empowerment of women is more over a
prerequisite for achieving people centered
development…..The abolition of poverty
can not be achieved until men and women
have equal access to the resources and
services necessary to achieve their
individual potential and fulfil their
obligations to household, community and,
more broadly society……..’’
(UK White Paper on International Development, 1997)
Gender Definitions
 Gender refers to the socially defined roles and
responsibilities of men, women and boys and girls.
Male and female gender roles are learned from
families and communities and vary by culture and
generation
 Gender
equality means the absence of
discrimination, on the basis of a person’s sex, in
opportunities, in the allocation of resources or
benefits or in access to services
 Gender equity means fairness and justice in
the distribution of benefits and responsibilities
between women and men and often requires womenspecific projects and programmes to end existing
inequities
Global Magnitude
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70% of the world’s 1.3 billion people living in
poverty are women
Women represent two thirds of the world’s
960 million non-literate people
In most developing countries, boys
enrolment in school exceeds that of girls
Approximately two thirds of the 130 million
children of school age who do not or can not
go to school are girls
Globally, violence against women causes
more deaths and disability among women
aged 15 to 44 than do cancer, malaria, traffic
accidents or war
2 million girls are at risk each year of female
genital mutilation
MMR-Countries
Canada-6
 India-570
 Nigeria-1000
 South Africa-230
(Data from World Health Report,1999)
Women suffer a heavier burden of illhealth than men and greater attention
must be paid to their health needs
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INDIA
927/1000 MEN (World Bank-1996)
 12 MILLION GIRL BORN(1.5m die before first
birth day, 1.5m die before fifth birthday
 70% of Indian women suffer from anaemia
 70-90% suffer from gynecological problems
 Mental illness:3:1-4:1 (Women’s health
project 1994)
 96% of female workforce in informal sector
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Mother’s Education-Impact
A study of 45 developing countries
found that the average mortality rate
for children under 5 was 144 per 1000
live births when their mothers had no
education, 106 per 1000 when they had
primary education only, and 68 per
1000 when they had some secondary
education.
(World Development Report 1998)
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Gender in the context of health
 Gender
Inequality in relation to health
Lower status/social value in the household
Cultural factors such as lack of female health provider
Being excluded from decision making on health actions
and expenditure
Lower literacy rates and reduced access to information
High opportunity costs of women’s labour time –
distance, waiting time etc.
 Social division of labour (women-informal care
provider)
 Susceptibility and Treatment to infectious diseasesMalaria & Tb. High
 Public health issues like violence, alcoholism,
smoking and life style related problems
Gender Equity
Men and Women do not receive less or
inferior treatment by virtue of their sex.
But Women are less likely to go for the
treatment…..Wrong assumption that
disease rates are lower among women
 Health needs which are specific to each
gender receive appropriate resources.
For example women and girls have
reproductive health needs………
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Gender and Health Financing
Are women more disadvantaged by
particular modes of payment (or are
they better able to manage some
modes over others)?
 Does cost recovery-particularly the
levying of user charges at point of
delivery-have an adverse impact on
women’s health?
 How do different types of cost
recovery affect access to services by
gender?
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Gender and Private Sector
Very little information on the
gender aspects of governments
working with the private sector
 Contracting out services to the
private/NGO sector-framework of
incentives to address health
needs of women and girls
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Gender & Decentralization
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Effort to include the
voice/participation of less
powerful both women and poorest
households in the process of
decentralization in healthcare
WHO Technical Paper 1998
WHO Technical Paper on gender and
health (1998) cites the main criticism of
WID policies as being that they continue
to define women themselves as the
problem, who need welfare and special
treatment if improvements in their
circumstances are to be made.
 The underlying reasons of women are
largely unexplored and no explanation is
offered for the systematic devaluation of
their work or the continuing constraints
on their access to resources
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Gender-Perspective
Gender equality is an issue of
development effectiveness, not
just a matter of political
correctness or kindness to
women.
(World Bank 2002)
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THANK YOU