Social determinants of health

Publications - women and gender equity

Key publications

Unequal, unfair, ineffective and inefficient. Gender inequity in health: why it exists and how we can change it - Final report of the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network (WGEKN), 2007

The final report of the WGEKN identifies three sets of actions: (A) creating formal agreements, codes and laws to change norms that violate women’s human rights, and then implementing them; (B) adopting multi-level strategies to change norms including supporting women’s organisations; (C) working with boys and men to transform masculinist values and behaviour that harm women’s health and their own.

Gender inequity in health: why it exists and how we can change it, 2008

The Women and Gender Knowledge Network additionally edited a theme issue of the journal Global Public Health with short versions of the commissioned papers mentioned before. They are for open access and can be found here.

Background papers and additional documents

1. Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin (eds) ''Gender Equity in Health: the Shifting Frontiers of Evidence and Action'', 2010, New York, Routledge Studies in Health and Social Welfare

2. Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin “Gender Inequity in Health: Why It Exists and How We Can Change It” in Tackling Health Inequities through Public Health Practice. Theory to Action (eds) Richard Hofrichter and Rajiv Bhatia, Oxford University Press, 2010.

3. Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin “Gender based inequities in global public health” in The Routledge International Handbook on Global Public Health (eds) Richard Parker and Marni Sommer, Routledge, 2011

4. Gita Sen and Piroska Ostlin “Gender as a social determinant of health: evidence, policies, and innovations” in The Women, Gender & Development Reader (eds) Nalini Visvanathan, Lynn Duggan, Nan Wiegersma and Laurie Nisonoff, Zed Books, 2011

5. Piroska Ostlin and Gita Sen “Achieving MDG4 and 5 through the promotion of gender equality”, Entre Nous, 2011;71:12-13.

SDH discussion forum

WHO film on social determinants of health

The commission

Other expert groups

Regional reports on Social Determinants of Health

Partners