Campaign

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark reminder that viruses do not respect national borders. We live in an interconnected and interdependent world. The pandemic has exposed deep inequalities – including gender inequality – in health and social systems at global and national levels. Many lives have been lost and will be lost to COVID-19 because fundamental gender inequities in the health workforce and wider society weaken our response. We must take steps now to build back better.

Global and local solidarity are vital as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates. Movements like Women in Global Health, which work beyond borders, are key to building global health resilience. As part of this emergency response, it is critical that women are enabled as decision-makers at all levels – from global to community – in equal numbers to men.

To strengthen the COVID-19 response and for future pandemics, Women in Global Health is calling for a gender responsive approach to health security, through our COVID 50/50 campaign. We are working with a global network of partners to increase the recognition of women’s work, paid and unpaid in the response to COVID-19.

The current state of global health requires urgent and decisive action. It requires equal representation for women in global health leadership because diverse perspectives strengthen health systems and save lives – and we can not win the fight against this (and other) health challenges by using only half of our global talent pool. The voices of women, especially women from the Global South, must be heard.