The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of gender-based health systems, say Peter Baker, Ann Keeling, Arush Lal, Chadia Wannous and Chandra Puri.
Covid-19 affects men, women and non-binary genders differently – and not in the same way. The virus is not gender-blind, but there is evidence that over 80% of Covid-19 health policies ignore gender. with serious consequences for the health and well-being of all. Worldwide, men experience higher disease severity and mortality from Covid-19 compared to women. The pandemic could therefore be perceived as a “men’s health emergency”. However, the reality is far more complex.
Women may have lower death rates, but they are bearing the brunt of the major secondary effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which have made their already weaker social and economic status worse. The pandemic has led to an increase in gender-based violence, unwanted pregnancies, stillbirths and maternal mortality. Anxiety and depression among women have increased, and more girls have dropped out of school and entered into child marriages. Women are more exposed to Covid-19 in the workplace as they make up 70% of the global workforce in health and social care, and have more challenges returning to work. People of non-binary gender have also experienced the negative effects of some countries’ gender-specific Covid-19 lockdown measures. and struggled to receive adequate sexual, reproductive and mental health care.
But Covid-19 must not become another battlefield in the so-called “gender war”. Positioning one sex or the other as the “greatest victim” in a health emergency that affects everyone and everywhere is divisive and obscures the fact that all aspects of the health and wellbeing of men and women are seriously affected, albeit in very different ways Wise.
Up to Covid-19, male and female health researchers and lawyers tended to work in separate silos. Women’s health advocates have often been reluctant to work with men’s health advocates, arguing that the policy priority for women’s and girls’ health, especially sexual and reproductive health and rights, is insufficient and fragile, and fear that increased attention to the health of Men would greatly shift needed priority and resources. In the meantime, fewer men’s health organizations have managed to capture a niche in a gender dominated by women’s health.
Women’s health advocates have highlighted barriers to women’s health caused by systemic gender inequality, gender-specific social norms, and social institutions led and favored by men. Men’s health advocates, who believe that their concerns are often overlooked, have emphasized that “gender” has been mistakenly equated with “women”. Men’s health problems have often been marginalized because of the tendency to blame men for “carelessness” rather than recognizing the role of male gender norms as a social determinant of health. However, advocates of men’s health have not consistently questioned the power and privileges of men, nor have they endorsed calls for more women in global health leadership. Both “sides” have at times positioned the health interests of men and women in opposing directions instead of recognizing that they are inextricably linked and interdependent.
Covid-19 has challenged us to think and act differently. This pandemic has shown that not all men and women are equal when it comes to their health vulnerabilities or their access to power. Men from groups marginalized by poverty, race, ethnicity or class are not privileged in making health decisions or accessing health care and may face higher disease severity and mortality. The same goes for women. Resilient health systems must be rooted in gender equality with diversity and intersectionality as important entry points to reach the weakest of all genders.
Bringing together women’s and men’s health work
As organizations that work for the health of men and women, we have joined the Gender and COVID-19 Working Group Sharing resources, data, and solutions while the virus was taking hold. We have understood in a new way that our common interests lie in the development of a gender-equitable health system that recognizes and meets the health needs of all genders.
A call to action for a gender equitable, intersectional and equitable approach to health
By understanding what made health advocates of men and women work separately in the past, while realizing the benefits of working together in the future, we will lay the foundation for advancing gender-equitable health systems as a critical pathway into the future. We will therefore take a “twin-track” approach and, if necessary, work on different health agendas for men and women, while working together on common issues where a gender-sensitive approach is most equitable and effective. We will endeavor Have an open dialogue about opportunities for an active partnership.
We urge the global health community to adopt this truly holistic and intersectional approach to health that takes into account the unique needs of all genders as well as diverse, socially determined health needs. We also welcome feedback and collaboration to strengthen this approach to gender equitable health systems.
We highlight four fields of action:
- Define the characteristics of a gender equitable health system who works equally and intersectionally to meet the needs of all genders and focuses on the most vulnerable.
- Build on the lessons learned from Covid-19 and previous pandemics create gender equitable global health security is central to future pandemic preparedness and response while facilitating sustainable and resilient recovery.
- Address the under-representation of women and people from the Global South in global health decision-making, Health research, health systems, advocacy and health professions, and support a model of Gender-transformative leadership in global health with a rights-based approach to address gender health inequalities.
- Make sure governments meet their health data breakdown obligations by gender, including access to care. This has generally not been done by most countries and has specifically undermined the response to Covid-19. Beyond gender, data should be broken down by intersectional factors, including gender identity, sexual orientation, age, class, race, ethnicity, caste, indigenous groups, and disability, in order to develop strategies and practices that identify and identify those most at risk to reach.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a global shock for health, social and economic systems – and it is far from over. But the crisis creates a new opportunity for men’s and women’s health organizations to come together with the common goal of advancing gender equitable health systems and global health security. Only if we recognize a gender-equitable and intersectional approach to health can we achieve a just and fair future with health for all.
Peter Baker, Director, Global Action on Men’s Health. Twitter @Globalmenhealth
Ann Keeling, Senior Policy Fellow, Women in Global Health. Twitter @annvkeeling
Arush Lal, Executive Vice President, Women in Global Health; Civil Society Representative, ACT Accelerator Health Systems Connector; MPhil / PhD candidate, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics & Political Science. Twitter @Arush_Lal
Chadia arbitrarily, Expert in International Health and Development, Health Emergency and Risk Reduction, and Vice President, Women in Global Health, Sweden. Twitter @ChadiaWannous
Mahesh Puri, Co-Director, Center for Research on Environment Health & Population Activities (CREHPA), Lalitpur, Nepal.
Competing interests: none declared.
Knowledge: With thanks to the following people for their contributions: Jeanette H Magnus, Director, Center for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway; Ingeborg K. Haavardsson, Chapter Lead, Women in Global Health Norway, and Managing Director, Center for Global Health, University of Oslo; Roopa Dhatt, co-founder and executive director of Women in Global Health; Mwende S Muya, Chapter Development Manager, Women in Global Health; Margaret E Greene, Senior Fellow, Promundo-US and Executive Director, GreeneWorks; Amon Ashaba Mwiine, Lecturer, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Uganda.
Disclaimer of liability: To use accessible and easily understood terminology, we use terms such as “women”, “men”, “female”, “male”, “non-binary” and LGBTQI when we talk about gender, gender and intersectionality. We acknowledge, however, that there is no terminology (including that used here) that accurately captures constructions of gender, gender, and sexuality across context without imposing certain stories, ontologies, and epistemologies on subjects who may use different concepts in their own understanding and self-identification.
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/our-response-to-covid-19-must-not-be-gender-blind-nor-a-gender-battle/
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