Gender
According to the United Nations, gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, affecting access to quality health care, exposure to health risks, and the outcomes of disease and disability—for children and parents alike. Improvements in health, from lower child mortality to greater access to reproductive care, can alter the power to access gender-related rights and freedoms. This section examines the new ways in which health and gender intersect and reinforce each other
Gender
8%
Online-only abortion clinics were found to account for 8% of abortions in the first half of 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Challenge to Abortion Pills Could Boost Illegal Imports
Four Times
Women do up to four times more unpaid care work than men, a gap that will take 210 years to close
Seeking Gender Equality in the Global Health Workforce
16%
Unsafe abortions already make up 16% of all maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa
Roe's Repeal Inspires Abortion Rollbacks in Other Countries
48 Million
82.4 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced by the end of 2020—more than half were women and girls
Displaced girls and women
38 Percent
Globally, 38 percent of males between the ages of 15 and 49 are drinking harmful amounts of alcohol
Young Men and Alcohol
70 Percent
70 percent of health-care workers are women
Women health-care workers
11 Percent
Women and girls were 11 percent more likely to drop out of school during the COVID pandemic compared to boys
Education, girls, and COVID-19
1 in 4
One in four U.S. women will have an abortion by age 45
Abortion in the United States
Featured
Outlasting the Taliban's Ban on Women's Medical Education
The education ban has kept new female talent from entering Afghanistan's under-resourced health-care sector
Bodies into Battlefields: Gender-Based Violence in Sudan
Amid Sudan's deadly war, women face a triple threat of death, displacement, and gender-based assault
Global Fertility Rate Continues To Fall: How Governments Could Prepare
The global fertility rate will decline from now through 2100, according to new projections in The Lancet
Empowering Native Mothers Through Midwifery
A nurse-midwife from the Navajo Nation on why there's now enough data to advance Indigenous birthing policy
U.S. Supreme Court Weighs Emergency Abortion Care
In Idaho v. United States, the stakes are high for health workers, pregnant patients, and abortion care
Zimbabwe's Review of Restrictive Abortion Laws
Activists are calling for a review of a decades-old abortion law to increase protections for women and girls
Confronting Big Alcohol's Sponsorship of Pride Parades
This Pride season, it is essential to begin considering the health impacts of Big Alcohol's sponsorship of parades
Post-Roe Era Tests Abortion Laws Worldwide
As abortion comes under fire in the United States, some countries have taken a stance toward expanding access
Menstrual Health Advocacy in Cameroon
Young women are crusading to expand access to menstrual health care and education in Cameroon
Gambia Moves to Overturn Ban on Female Genital Cutting
The impending collapse of Gambia's ban on the practice casts a shadow over years of hard-fought efforts across Africa
How Gender and Sex Shape Disease
New research exposes why health systems should tailor responses to the needs of men and women starting at a young age
U.S. Supreme Court Challenge to Abortion Pills Could Boost Illegal Imports
Safeguarding access to pills from online foreign distributors may become a flashpoint in the reproductive care battle
Seeking Gender Equality in the Global Health Workforce
By adopting a gender perspective, policymakers can better address the challenges that women in the health sector face
Count Her In: The Road to Women's Economic Empowerment
Targeting gender-based violence and promoting economic empowerment should be global concerns