Women's Leadership in Health
Access to high quality health care is a cornerstone of human capital development and is essential for reducing poverty and establishing productive, sustainable economies. The role of women’s participation as leaders in health care is an underexplored but important part of the conversation around improving health care systems. Women comprise an estimated 70 percent of the 43 million health care employees around the world. They are overwhelmingly the decision makers for meeting the health needs of their families, making four-fifths of health purchases. Given this, it would seem beneficial for all if women were strongly represented in the senior leadership of health care companies and firms. Yet this is not the case. Despite women’s employment as doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care personnel, available data consistently shows a lack of gender parity in leadership.
