Global Health Fails to Represent
Global Health Fails to Represent
Introduction
It’s easy enough to say we need to diversify things in our world– we can clearly see the need for it globally whether it may be in terms of leadership, power, politics, etc.. But the stark reality is that global issues still aren’t being tackled in a representative manner (Bertram et al. 2020). Specifically, gender inequities are prominent in both leadership opportunities and in health outcomes. Global health needs to reflect the demographics of our world if it wants to see appropriate and effective outcomes. In my blog post, I plan to explain the shortcomings of global health initiatives due to the gender inequities that permeate them and why it is important we make changes that reflect the rich diversity of our world.
Leadership
Going into this blog post, I already knew that gender inequalities existed in global health– but it wasn’t until I saw the numbers firsthand that I realized how significantly low the number of female representation global health truly gets. For example, in general, I found that only 5% of the leadership in global health is women from low- and middle-income countries (Forbes). Leadership, according to the Forbes articles is “mainly in the hands of older (> 45 years) men from HICs (high income countries).” Global health organizations are failing to achieve the diversity and inclusion efforts necessary in leadership. Living in a world where the ratio of men to women is almost exactly equal, why is it that “Over 70% of CEOs and board chairs are men, while just 5% of leaders are women from low- and middle-income countries.” If these trends persist in general global health, we will continue seeing disparities for decades. In another report Devex found that within the World Health Organization itself, only 41% of director level staff at headquarters were women, with the numbers of female directors dropping to just 27% of health emergencies program staff at headquarters.” It seems like common sense that having more women serve in leadership roles in global health will help facilitate gender inequities found in health crises, but misogyny and the systemic barriers continue to leave women underrepresented in positions of power where they can add their voice and perspective in initiatives.
So… Why Does This Matter?
If global health aims to address the inequities people from marginalized regions and communities face, why don’t the decision-makers reflect those kinds of demographics. One can always learn about the oppressive structures that influence people’s lives, but if you’ve never experienced how your identity can be made the “problem”, it’s going to be significantly more difficult creating a framework and mission plans that go beyond surface level improvements. When we don’t have a representative body making decisions that affect people from marginalized communities, we find notable disparities between the resources and attention paid to some global health problems and their burden of disease,” (Forbes). If diversifying our leaders will make a positive change in the type of work we want to see, why don’t more organizations in global health fight for that kind of inclusion?
In the global realm of international politics, we’ve consistently talked about winners and losers when it comes to decision making. We want to promote equality among various sectors, but will actions to do so ever come to fruition if it means people, namely white men, will lose something in the process? In addition to more representation in global health, organizations like the World Health Organization must ensure that its leaders and contributing members are well versed in cultural competence and bias training. Initiative-setting shouldn’t only fall in the hands of women and people of color– we must ensure that White men are contributing to the conversation as well in speaking up on inconsistencies and areas that need improvement (essentially using their privilege to do so) (Bertram et al. 2020). Revisiting leadership quotas and positions held by people who come from marginalized communities can be beneficial to the actions we see coming from large, impactful organizations like WHO. But it can’t be the only plan of action– it must be accompanied by other systemic changes that specifically target inequities from the root.
Links:
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/silenced-voices-global-health
Nice post! If you could augment the diversity in any other two systems or fields, in an effort to indirectly or directly increase the diversity of global health, which would they be? Do you think that the US and other developed countries have a responsibility to lead the way in terms of diversity in global health?
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam! I would say that if I could augment diversity in any other two systems or fields that would indirectly or directly increase the diversity of global health-- I would say high government positions would be a place to start in 1) breaking the stigma of women and people of color from occupying such large roles and 2) bring in that perspective to global politics. I would also look at medical staffing for missions in global health-- ensuring that we are promoting cultural competency is essential to trying to mitigate health crises around the world. I think that developed countries have an opportunity to lead the way, especially with the privileges we have. But we must be willing to hold ourselves accountable for how we contribute to systems of oppression.
DeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. To me it is not shocking that women hold a small amount of representation in global health. I feel that women continue to be underrepresented in various sectors of society. It is so important to recognize how much of society white men control. This leads to the question of are they willing to give/ lose a little for the benefit of others? And what are the other ways we can work toward changing the health industry to equally represent all?
ReplyDeleteIt really is hard to try and accomplish diversifying global health when there is still that competition aspect many developed countries push. Even beyond getting numbers, it's important to recognize we all have privileges-- even those who come from marginalized communities. We need to use our voices in places where we are in power to contribute to the ongoing conversations of diversity and inclusion.
DeleteYou bring up another great point on why international organizations continue to be incredibly biased and do not stand for value they try and push on others. Global health is such an important issue, and if the WHO is representative of people from all over how could they possibly expect to fix the problem. They need a diverse set of members to be able to say what problems and issues they have to successfully solve the problem. Again this just shows one of the many ways these organizations are in many ways just for show.
ReplyDeleteExactly! There are so many reasons as to why we need to diversify global health, but we continue to uplift systems and ideas of oppression that continuously leaves voices of underrepresented people left out. Especially geographical underrepresentation-- if we are making calls in places outside our country, we need to ensure we are listening to the voices of people in the countries we are trying to help.
Delete