Advancing women in science, medicine, and global health

Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, Number 10171, 9 February 2019, pages 493-610. 

This special issue from The Lancet focusses on SDG 5 (gender equality) within science, medicine, and global health, contributing to SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing).  This issue also contributes to SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities).

The Lancet's special issue on advancing women in science, medicine, and global health, contains new international evidence on forms of gender bias in funding; women’s attrition in clinical training programmes; the extent to which universities worldwide have actualised their public commitments to gender and ethnic diversity; and the relationship between women’s leadership in science and the production of sex/gender-related research.

New analysis and commentary establish the importance of feminist and masculinity theories, and problematise organisational strategies for increasing gender diversity in medicine and science. The importance of intersectionality, learning from the Global South, and the under-recognition of women’s experience of harassment and abuse are key themes.

Collectively, the theme issue lays out robust evidence to inform an action plan for institutional leaders to confront gender bias, improve diversity and inclusivity, and drive change. Strategies to redress inequalities are not just women’s issues—they require the full participation of everyone in deeper explanations and solutions.

Table of contents

Elsevier,

The Lancet, Volume 393, Issue 10171, 9–15 February 2019, Pages 512-514.

Directly contributing to SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 5 (gender equality) and SDG 4 (quality education), this report investigates sexual harassment incidents within academia and discusses the uprising of online naming and shaming of sexual harassment culprits.
Elsevier,

The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019

Feminism is a social movement that promotes gender equality and social justice for all individuals, regardless of gender identification.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
To adequately address gendered issues of sexual harassment, wage gaps, and leadership inequities, medical institutions must interrogate medical education. Feminist theories can help to understand how power operates within our classrooms and at the bedside.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
Background: Across countries and disciplines, studies show male researchers receive more research funding than their female peers. Because most studies have been observational, it is unclear whether imbalances stem from evaluations of female research investigators or of their proposed research. In 2014, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research created a natural experiment by dividing investigator-initiated funding applications into two new grant programmes: one with and one without an explicit review focus on the calibre of the principal investigator.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
In August 2018, the president of the World Bank noted that “‘Human capital’—the potential of individuals—is going to be the most important long-term investment any country can make for its people's future prosperity and quality of life”. Nevertheless, leaders and practitioners in academic science and medicine continue to be unaware of and poorly educated about the nature, extent, and impact of barriers to full participation of women and minorities in science and medicine around the world.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
Improving the career progression of women and ethnic minorities in public health universities has been a longstanding challenge, which we believe might be addressed by including staff diversity data in university rankings. We present findings from a mixed methods investigation of gender-related and ethnicity-related differences in career progression at the 15 highest ranked social sciences and public health universities in the world, including an analysis of the intersection between sex and ethnicity.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
The purpose of this Review is to provide evidence for why gender equality in science, medicine, and global health matters for health and health-related outcomes. We present a high-level synthesis of global gender data, summarise progress towards gender equality in science, medicine, and global health, review the evidence for why gender equality in these fields matters in terms of health and social outcomes, and reflect on strategies to promote change.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
Background: Clinical and preclinical studies have shown that there are sex-based differences at the genetic, cellular, biochemical, and physiological levels. Despite this, numerous studies have shown poor levels of inclusion of female populations into medical research. These disparities in sex inclusion in research are further complicated by the absence of sufficient reporting and analysis by sex of study populations. Disparities in the inclusion of the sexes in medical research substantially reduce the utility of the results of such research for the entire population.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 393, 9 - 15 February 2019
Background: Women are under-represented in surgery and leave training in higher proportions than men. Studies in this area are without a feminist lens and predominantly use quantitative methods not well suited to the complexity of the problem. Methods: In this qualitative study, a researcher interviewed women who had chosen to leave surgical training.