Gender Issues

A tool designed to help program and training managers, curriculum designers and trainers facilitate the operationalization and assessment of gender sensitivity during pre- and in-service training of service providers.

This handbook explains why a gender and human rights strategy is a better approach for achieving results in curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic It also shows you how to do it by providing the necessary information and techniques for incorporating gender and human rights into HIV/AIDS training. [from introduction]

The manual is designed to help the ILO’s partners understand the issues and apply the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS and the world of work. The Code is at the core of the ILO’s Programme on HIV/AIDS, providing guidance to governments, employers and workers, as well as other stakeholders, on national action plans and workplace policies and programmes to combat HIV/AIDS.

Women health workers have been vital in improving the health of women and children in Pakistan. Inspired by its neighbor’s experience, Afghanistan is embarking on a similar program to encourage women to work in the health sector. [author’s description]

The Gender Policy Guidelines have been established in order to support the Department of Health in meeting not only its constitutional commitment to promoting gender equity and equality, but also its own commitments to equity, meeting the needs of those who have been previously marginalized and improving its productivity and quality of care within the health services.

Stronger pre-service education and in-service training systems for health workers are essential to meet the increasing need for quality services. To support efforts to improve health worker education and training systems, the Capacity Project has assembled a collection of resources that can be used for reference and adaptation. While the Capacity Project does not endorse any particular document or approach represented in these resources, they were selected by Project staff with expertise in the content areas. [author’s description]

The involvement of district-level workers in local-level practical approaches to mainstreaming gender is central to facilitating change and informing health strategies. There are very few practical examples of mainstreaming gender in health, especially at the lower levels of the health sector. One approach is to build the capacity of staff to conduct and respond to gender analysis. [author’s description]

The roles that women and men play should guide the ways in which clinic staff assess their clients’ needs and provide care. This edition of The Manager shows how awareness of gender issues can improve the design, mangement, and delivery of health services, and takes you step by step through the process of assessing the influence of gender on organizational management. [editor’s description]

This paper describes the experiences of three types of programs (government, reproductive health NGO, and women’s health NGO) in Kenya, India, and Guatemala that integrate gender in their work and examines how they integrate gender into programs that improve quality of care and access to care. It should be emphasized that this report does not document whether gender integration results in higher quality and access, but rather documents how gender integration can take place. [author’s description]

These training modules and handouts provide the materials to conduct a two day workshop designed to help participants define gender and related concepts; understand the continuum of gender as it relates to integration in projects; understand the six domains of gender and related questions; apply a process for gender analysis to HRH contexts; understand where and how gender can be integrated in HRH country strategies. [adapted from author]

Tools to assist primary providers and their managers in assessing, monitoring and improving the gender sensitivity of family planning and reproductive health services on an ongoing basis. [publisher’s description]

In response to the under-representation of female peer educators in the Geração BIZ Program (GBP), an adolescent sexual and reproductive health program in Mozambique, an operational research study was used to test new strategies for improving recruitment, participation, and retention of female peer educators. The study tested an intervention model to increase the involvement and performance of girls in the GBP.

There are substantial differences in the working lives of women and men and this affects their occupational safety and health (OSH). The Community strategy on health and safety at work has mainstreaming, or integrating, gender into occupational safety and health activities as an objective. To support this, the Agency has produced a report examining gender differences in workplace injury and illness, gaps in knowledge and the implications for improving risk prevention. This factsheet summarizes the main findings. [adapted from publisher’s description]

The aim of this report is not only to give a clear overview of gender differences in safety and health at work and how they arise, but also to provide information about what this means for prevention and how a gender-sensitive approach can be taken in occupational safety and health. [from preface]

This report is the outcome of a seminar held in Brussels on 15th June 2004. The aims of the seminar were firstly to share information on gender and occupational safety and health (OSH) issues, including a gender-sensitive approach in OSH and how gender can be mainstreamed into OSH, and secondly to facilitate discussion and debate among EU and national authorities, social partners and experts on how to take forward gender issues in OSH. It includes proposals for taking forward gender issues in OSH. [Publisher’s description]

Academic medicine has the opportunity to improve the quantity and quality of the health workforce as a means of strengthening the broader health system. However, it must address the gender dimensions of enrollment, curriculum, and promotion to have a positive impact on human resources for health around the world. [author’s description]

Recruitment and retention of medical staff are important issues in rural health. The aim of this study was to describe and understand the perceptions of women doctors working in rural hospitals in South Africa about their work. [from abstract]

This paper reviews current literature and debates about health sector reform in developing countries in the context of its possible implications for women's health and for gender equity. It points out that gender is a significant marker of social and economic vulnerability which is manifest in inequalities of access to health care and in women's and men's different positioning as users and producers of health care. [from abstract]

This article takes up the relatively neglected issue of gender in human resources policy and planning (HRPP), with particular reference to the health sector in developing countries.

This review highlighted the fact that employment equity debates and policies largely refer to high-income countries. Even in these countries, there is more rhetorical commitment than hard evidence of successful outcomes. Evaluations have been mainly post hoc and many initiatives have not been evaluated at all. There is a continuing debate about what is the appropriate kind of intervention, a number of competing models being advocated. The most noticeable trend seems to be away from reliance on targeting by numbers (particularly for recruitment) and towards more comprehensive approaches across a range of inter- and intra-organizational interventions and over the whole career of the employee.