Features

Happy International Women's Day

At IntraHealth International, we get fired up about gender equality on International Women’s Day and all year round. That’s why we help health workers respond to gender-based violence. Why we create tools to assess gender sensitivity in health services. And why we promote equal participation in all of the many health professions.

Worldwide, women make up the bulk the of the health workforce. By helping to make sure women and girls have equal access to health care—and equal access to jobs and opportunities in the health care industry—we’re working toward a stronger, more robust health workforce from which all seven billion of us can benefit.

In celebration of the power of health workers—especially female health workers—here are a dozen of our most exciting stories from the past year, including some tools and resources for putting gender on the local, national, and global agenda.

Young India: Investing in Health Workers Could Save Young Girls’ Lives
When Kajal’s parents announced that it was time for her to get married, she balked. She wanted to keep going to school, she told them. And besides, she was only 16. IntraHealth’s Vistaar Project worked with the state government in Jharkhand, India, to help adolescents like Kajal, their parents, and their communities understand the health dangers that come with early marriage. Read more »

Here’s to Fewer Underage Marriages in India in 2013
Laxmi Sargara made history in 2012 when she had her marriage annulled. She and her husband Rakesh are one of the first Indian couples on record to fight against a wedding that took place when they were only children.
Read more »

The Power of Proverbs?
This list of proverbs from around the world, compiled by Constance Newman, IntraHealth’s senior team leader for gender equality and health, makes violence against women sound perfectly normal. Read more »

Star of Senegal: A Midwife Fights for Affordable Family Planning
“I cannot allow these women to lose control over their lives because they have to choose between feeding their families and planning them,” says midwife Aïssatou Dia Fall. With her help, women in the poorest suburbs of Dakar, Senegal are able to fully enjoy their lives and families. Read more »

Gender Equality: The New Business as Usual
Working to achieve gender equality is the new norm for the US government, says Maryce Ramsey, IntraHealth’s senior gender equality advisor. Read more »

Why Does a Woman Use Contraception? For a Better Life.
How can we ensure that more women and men have access to the information and services they need to make decisions about family planning? And how can we help make sure health workers have the skills and knowledge they need to help their patients make informed choices? Read more »

Gender-Based Violence in Maternity Care
Why, despite the risks of home birth and the benefits of institutional delivery, do most women in Ethiopia still choose to give birth at home? A gender assessment offers some answers. Read more »

Strengthening the Health Worker Pipeline through Gender-Transformative Strategies
This technical brief provides an overview of how gender discrimination affects health professional students and faculty as well as intervention options to counter gender discrimination. It also recommends ways for pre-service education institutions and other stakeholders to address these challenges. Read more »

Uganda Ministry of Health Gender Discrimination and Inequality Analysis Report
This analysis offers an assessment of the status of gender equality and equal opportunity for women and men within Uganda's public health sector. Read more »

New Gender and Health Workforce eLearning Course Attracts More than 130 Students in First Three Weeks
Students flock to a free eLearning course produced by IntraHealth’s HRH Global Resource Center called “Foundations of Gender Equality in the Health Workforce.” Read more »

A Permanent Place for Gender in Global Health Education
Constance Newman, IntraHealth’s senior team leader for gender equality and health, is helping to develop a plan to integrate gender into the curricula in global public health schools in North Carolina’s Triangle area.
Read more »

Vistaar: Two Decades of Collaboration for Women and Children
Last year marked the end of a six-year, $25 million investment by the United States Agency for International Development to improve maternal, newborn, child, and infant health and nutrition in three Indian states: the IntraHealth-led Vistaar Project. Read more »


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