A new study published in The Lancet Public Health has examined how the global health workforce has changed over the past three decades, including detailed information on women’s representation in the field.
Between 1990 and 2023, the number of health workers around the world grew from 40.9 million to 122.1 million. In 2023, women accounted for 68.9 percent of all health workers and women health workers accounted for 71.4 percent of the workforce growth since 1990. Despite their overwhelming majority among healthcare workers, women are still underrepresented among the world’s doctors, representing 43.9 percent of the profession. In contrast, women are significantly overrepresented among the world’s nurses (80.7 percent), midwives (96.0 percent), and community health workers (89.5 percent).
“Occupational segregation in the health-care sector is longstanding and persistent. Within-cadre progression to leadership is an issue: even in cadres where women predominate as workers, men are represented in the majority of senior management and clinical leadership roles,” the authors write. “Barriers to female leadership deprive health systems of talent and can lead to workforce strategies that fail to consider the challenges faced by the largely female workforce.”
The authors continue, “Formal mentorship and sponsorship programmes, leadership development training, transparent promotion criteria, and gender-responsive leadership initiatives are all candidate strategies for addressing the within-cadre gender leadership gap. Addressing workplace violence and sexual harassment along with formal reporting systems for harassment and assault are also critical. Flexible work arrangements, universal provision of paid maternity and caregiving leave, and caregiving arrangement policies that do not penalise career interruption are all policies that could be considered to bolster [human resources for health] capacity by better supporting the female health workforce. Dismantling and refashioning stereotypes surrounding the health workforce to recruit male workers could also be considered. Gender-neutral job advertisements and systems for peer support, mentorship, and sponsorship all represent ideas for addressing barriers related to socialisation and stereotypes.”