The Health of Women and Girls Determines the Health and Well-Being of Our Modern World: A White Paper From the International Council on Women’s Health Issues

 The International Council on Women’s Health Issues (ICOWHI) is an international nonprofit association dedicated to the goal of promoting health, health care, and well-being of women and girls throughout the world through participation, empowerment, advocacy, education, and research. We are a multidisciplinary network of women’s health providers, planners, and advocates from all over the globe. We constitute an international professional and lay network of those committed to improving women and girl’s health and quality of life. This document provides a description of our organization mission, vision, and commitment to improving the health and well-being of women and girls globally.

In 2011, women and girls remain victims of gender inequality (Read & Gorman, 2010). Despite progress in eliminating the social and health disparity between men and women during the last century, gender equality remains an elusive goal, particularly in the developing world. Although women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, they earn only 10% of the world’s income. This represents less than 1% of the world’s property and illustrates the inequity experienced by women. In many countries, women and girls have less access to education, an important predictor of well-being (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2007). Impoverishment equates not only to hunger and sickness, but also to disempowerment and marginalization. As a result, many women and girls are subject to violence and other human rights abuses. When addressing women’s lives, it is crucial to examine the underlying social, cultural, environmental, epidemiological, and economic determinants of health (Marmot, Friel, Bell, Houweling, & Taylor, 2008).

Women and girls have specific health needs, and health systems around the world are failing them (World Health Organization [WHO], 2009). The WHO states that today women’s health has become an urgent priority, yet the data surrounding this issue are limited and often unreliable (WHO, 2009). It is ICOWHI’s aim to improve the health, health, care and well-being of women worldwide. The vision, mission, and strategic goals of ICOWHI are aligned with the WHO’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG; see Table 1). We believe it is important that these goals are not dealt with independently; many of them are closely interrelated, as development in one area will promote improvement in another. Depending on the global region and social, political, and economic climate, a range of activities and strategies are required to achieve optimal health outcomes. In all instances, strategic initiatives need to be undertaken within a framework of cultural competence and consideration of the health and well-being of women and girls across the life span.

TABLE 1

Vision and Mission of the International Council on Women’s Health Issues

Vision

Through its commitment to improving the health and well-being of women worldwide,

ICOWHI is dedicated to:

Exploring the biological, socio-economic, cultural, political, and spiritual factors affecting the health and development of women and girls;

Promoting the education and empowerment of women and girls globally;

Examining the relationships between and among socio-cultural structures that influence the health and well-being of women and girls;

Identifying areas of need and facilitating, implementing, and evaluating solutions to potential and actual health problems of women and girls of all ages;

Encouraging a multi-disciplinary and multi-sector approach to promoting women and girl’s health and well-being;

Promoting and supporting women’s health research; and

Influencing policy related to women and girls health worldwide.

Mission

Improving the health, health care and well-being of women worldwide

We are excited to support the United Nation’s (UN’s) women’s initiative launched on January 1, 2011. UN Women emerged from agreement by UN Member States, with strong support of women’s organizations that more needs to be done so that women can claim equal rights and opportunities (United Nations [UN] Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, 2011).

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THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS AS HUMAN RIGHTS

In most societies, women have lower social status than men, producing unequal power relations. For this reason, women and girls can be particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses and suffer poor health outcomes as a result. Arguably, women need special attention when framing an agenda for global health due to the fact that women are biologically different from men and therefore have different needs throughout their lifespan (Sankaran, 2010).

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the principal international human rights treaty addressing the rights of women. In 1997 the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution calling on all specialized agencies of the UN to mainstream a gender perspective into all their policies and programes. Numerous other conferences and declarations have resulted in the reaffirmation of women’s rights and needs in the health sector (Sankaran, 2010).

A gender-based approach is established on the recognition of the differences between men and women. Policies that support women’s empowerment serve to alleviate inequitable gender roles (Rosenfield, Min, & Bardfield, 2010). Despite much effort toward creating gender equality, women remain vulnerable, with many women still not able to experience enjoyment of their fundamental human rights. Recognition of the importance of women’s rights is central to any discussion of the MDGs, as innumerable studies have demonstrated that gender equality is a precondition for sustainable growth and poverty reduction.