Purpose

This advocacy tool will help you to:

• Understand how common forms of gender inequalities and gender discrimination, such as pregnancy and family responsibilities, occupational segregation, wage discrimination, and sexual harassment can negatively affect the health workforce
• Examine data to assess whether the health workers in your country, program, or health facility may be experiencing one or more of these forms of gender discrimination
• Consider relevant gender-transformative interventions to implement in your context that would seek to critically examine gender inequalities, support an enabling environment for equality, promote marginalized groups, and/or change underlying social and cultural norms that perpetuate inequality and discrimination
• Develop a strategic advocacy plan to create, implement, and enforce equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies and improved management to reduce gender discrimination and work toward a more motivated and effective workforce that can better serve the population’s family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and other primary health care needs.

Note that the issues of gender discrimination and the steps for advocacy and action described in this tool focus on the health service delivery workforce. Aspects of gender discrimination in health workforce development specifically related to preservice education, such as issues affecting health professional students and faculty are described in the Gender Equality and Health Workforce Development Advocacy Tool. It is beyond the scope of this tool to address issues of gender discrimination from the client perspective, which is also of critical importance. You can learn more about this in the Gender and Health Systems Strengthening eLearning course. However, a number of the strategies and interventions described in this tool to promote gender equality in the health workforce may also have a positive impact on service delivery.