Women in Leadership
Image: The Peacock, Shirsendu Banerjee, India (2019).
A special BMJ collection on women in leadership in the health sector in India and Kenya
Together with APHRC and ICRW, G5050 published a special collection in the leading global health journal, BMJ – a culmination of over two years of research partnership.
Read the collection here or explore the publications below.
Analysis
Strengthening systems of accountability for women’s leadership in the health sector
Accountability can improve equal opportunities for women’s career progression and it must be strengthened in the health sector, argue Kent Buse and colleagues
Dismantling the structures of inequality: why we need feminist leadership in the health sector
Approaches to increasing women’s representation in senior leadership need to go beyond individual empowerment and adopt principles of social justice, argue Sarah Hawkes and Rama Baru
Health systems in India: analysing barriers to inclusive health leadership through a gender lens
Using India as a case study, Jasmine Gideon and colleagues argue that considering how gender perspectives operate within health systems and society can help achieve more inclusive health leadership
Research
Pathways to leadership: what accounts for women’s (in)equitable career paths in the health sectors in India and Kenya? A scoping review
Naomi Saville and colleagues examine how women in India and Kenya’s health sectors face multiple impediments in their careers, which impact their advancement to leadership
Legislation for advancing women’s leadership in the health sector in India and Kenya: a ‘law cube’ approach to identify ways to strengthen legal environments for gender equality
Mireille Evagora-Campbell and colleagues examine the availability of legal provisions, or the lack thereof, that support women to progress equitably into leadership positions within the health workforce in India and Kenya
About the research
Global 50/50 partnered with the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) to generate evidence to understand two issues at the root of low representation of women in the leadership of the health sectors in India and Kenya:
- context-specific barriers to women’s career pathways, and particularly for women who experience multiple forms of discrimination, including structural and social factors;
- the lack of effective and accessible strategies to promote women’s advancement into positions of leadership.
The research focused on India and Kenya as countries with the potential to provide a wealth of insight into large lower-middle income countries with complex health systems. The countries serve as regional hubs with substantial presence of regional and global health organisations and are home to a diverse range of actors, organisations and sectors active in public health.
Expand to read more about our research partners
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is a global research institute with offices located in Washington, D.C.; New Delhi, India; Nairobi, Kenya; and Kampala, Uganda. Established in 1976 and anchored in the principle of human dignity, ICRW advances gender equity, social inclusion and shared prosperity worldwide. Our researchers dig into the ways gender shapes societies and the ways people’s lives are diminished by power imbalances. We use evidence to inform our advocacy, advisory services and program design. Our evidence sheds light on some of the most intractable challenges facing us and informs solutions that work.
The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
The African Population and Health Research Center is the continent’s premier research institution and think tank, exploring questions of population health and wellbeing. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with a newly opened satellite office in Dakar, Senegal, the Center seeks to drive change with evidence led by a growing cadre of research leaders from across sub-Saharan Africa. Our teams orient their research agendas according to global and continental development priorities, driven by the belief that Africa and African-generated evidence must be at the forefront of decisions supporting improved growth and development.