Gender-sensitive indicators for healthcare

Abstract

The use of gender-sensitive indicators is a critical component in the effort for effective gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming was endorsed to promote equity between women and men at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, and more recently, in 2006, in a resolution of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC, 2006). International organizations regularly collect data from member states and publish voluminous collections of national statistics. The importance of this for gender mainstreaming has recently been underscored by Sen and colleagues in their report to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, Knowledge Network on Women and Gender Equity, which proposed the following strategy: Ensure collection of data disaggregated by sex, socioeconomic status, and other social stratifiers by individual research projects as well as through larger data systems at regional and national levels, and the classification and analysis of such data towards meaningful results and expansion of knowledge for policy. (Sen et al., 2007: x) Concern about the lack of sex-disaggregation of routinely collected statistics has led to attempts to develop indicators for gender equity and health at the global, national and sub-national level (Beck, 1999; UNIFEM, 2000). Comprehensive women’s health surveillance reporting, such as report cards, have also been attempted in some countries, along with concerted global efforts to engender the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (UNIFEM, 2008).