Why now for a Series on gender equality, norms, and health?

Abstract

When this Series on gender equality, norms, and health was first conceptualised in 2015, we were surprised by how little targeted effort had been achieved at this intersection, despite compelling evidence that gender equality improves health and wellbeing. 1,2 The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and universal health coverage goals demand greater attention to the social determinants of health, including gender, and more integrated, multisectoral programming to enable all people to reach their full human potential. Yet potential advances in health and development are thwarted by systemic neglect of gender norms and inequalities in programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, despite the adoption of gender mainstreaming 3 [A: ref added here] by global health institutions. However, the same systems that perpetuate these injustices against women and girls also harm men and boys and gender and sexual minorities, and affect a broad array of health outcomes for all people. We aim for this Series 4-8 to provide new understanding of the impact of gender inequalities and norms on health, and the opportunities that exist within health systems, programmes, policies, and research to transform gender norms and inequalities.

Depression in relation to sex and gender expression among Swedish septuagenarians—Results from the H70 study

“…The Lancet series ‘Gender Equality, Norms, and Health’ [ 1 ] highlights the importance of treating sex and gender as distinct, not interchangeable, entities in medical research. While sex includes the biological distinction between men and women, gender adds to the behavioral, cultural or psychological attributes associated with one sex or the other according to societal norms, which can change over time and differ among cultures [ 2 ].…”

The gender responsiveness of social marketing interventions focused on neglected tropical diseases

“…While data availability may be partially determined by local systems and may vary depending on the income level of a country; it is suggested that future studies collect non-binary data and consider intersections with other social stratifiers. Other studies have also raised the lack of clarity in the use of sex and gender concepts and the reliance on binaries [24,25,28,32,33]. Findings also show that little is reported about the content of communication materials and of data collection tools used, which limits understanding of how these have responded to the local context and their possible effects.…”

“…From inception to completion, collect, interpret, and report data by sex and gender. Guidelines for integration of sex and intersectional gender into data collection, analysis, and reporting exist [31,112], as well as studies providing foundational concepts to understand how sex and gender concepts differ and overlap [24,25,28,32].…”

“…Health systems, access, and behaviors are shaped by gender norms, roles, relations and intersect with other lines of inequity and discrimination [22][23][24][25] to shape the experience of populations and subgroups of people. The conjugation of gender with these social stratifiers generates barriers to access to opportunities, healthcare, and better wellbeing [22,[26][27][28]. Addressing intersectional gender imbalances is, therefore, necessary to reduce health inequities [20].…”

“…The interpretation and use of disaggregated data are important. Failure to conduct gender analyses conceals patterns relevant to health outcomes [24,28,32].…”