No one should be sick or die because of gender inequality

WHO report Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda Despite progress, societies continue to fail women at key times of their lives

Women and men differ in terms of biological make-up, power, status, norms and roles in society. WHO Member States and international agreements stress that these differences must be acknowledged, analysed and addressed through gender analysis and actions.

Without due attention to gender equality, health services, programmes, laws and policies will have limited effects. Women and men will not achieve their full health potential over the life-course. Furthermore, without achieving Millennium Development Goal 3 - gender equality and empowerment of women - the other MDGs will not be met by 2015.

Advancing the field of gender, women and health

The goal of the WHO Department of Gender, Women and Health is to create, sustain and support evidence-based policies and programmes in WHO and Member States with partners to achieve gender equality, health equity and improve women's health. It does so by providing leadership in advancing the field of gender, women and health based on the principles of gender equality and health equity.
:: Corporate brief [pdf 137kb]
:: 2009 Highlights: Gender, Women and Health Network

EVENTS 2010 High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals 20-22 September 2010 -- New York, USA First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research 16-19 November 2010 -- Montreux, Switzerland Full list of events International Women's Day 8 March 2010 Equal rights, equal opportunities: progress for all

KEY PUBLICATIONS Women and health: today's evidence tomorrow's agenda WHO report Strategy for integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO WHO gender strategy Human rights and gender equality and health [pdf 216kb] Overview of impact assessment tools Gender, women and primary health care renewal [pdf 279kb] Coming soon Full list of publications

What do we mean by "sex" and "gender"

What is "gender mainstreaming"?

Why gender and health?

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