between girls and boys. We call for a gendered perspective in developing policy responses by tackling the sexual and reproductive health and socioeconomic issues addressed here to bring girls back to school after the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic end. We also ask governments to collect data specifically on non-paid housework and childcare respon sibilities frequently ignored when investigating the consequences of child labour. Addressing the health and socioeconomic issues girls might face during this pandemic, as well as collecting data to quantify their effects, are important in honouring the commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.We declare no competing interests.

Gender equity is imperative to the attainment of healthy lives and wellbeing of all, and promoting gender equity in leadership in the health sector is an important part of this endeavour. This empirical research examines gender and leadership in the health sector, pooling learning from three complementary data sources: literature review, quantitative analysis of gender and leadership positions in global health organisations and qualitative life histories with health workers in Cambodia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The findings highlight gender biases in leadership in global health, with women underrepresented. Gender roles, relations, norms and expectations shape progression and leadership at multiple levels. Increasing women's leadership within global health is an opportunity to further health system resilience and system responsiveness. We conclude with an agenda and tangible next steps of action for promoting women's leadership in health as a means to promote the global goals of achieving gender equity.

Twitter Irene Torres @lairene1 Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to all people that provided information in our crowdsourcing effort and the Gender and COVID-19 working group for their input and thoughts. Contributors All authors contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript.

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