Gender inequality has a major negative impact on the health of women and girls. Sociocultural factors that prevent women from accessing health information and care include:
Discrimination against women often begins at birth with high rates of female infanticide and neglect, including malnutrition and failure to address illness in young girls. Violence against women increases their exposure to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Women's low status results in high rates of anemia and malnutrition, which, together with practices like early marriage and female genital mutilation, contribute to high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Mental illness remains undiagnosed and untreated in large numbers of women worldwide. [1]
The number of people living with HIV rose from an
estimated 29.5 million in 2001 to 33 million in 2007. The
vast majority of those living with HIV are in sub-Saharan
Africa, where about 60 per cent of adults living with HIV in
2007 were women. [2]
Gender inequalities are a key driver of the epidemic in several ways:[3]
Women assume the majority of family care-giving, including for those living with HIV.
When their partners die, they lose their homes, inheritance, possessions, and livelihoods, forcing them and their children into extreme poverty. To survive, they often end up in the sex trade, which increases their chances of contracting or spreading HIV. When the mothers die, they leave their children behind, often with no means of support: Orphaned children end up living with their grandmothers or in households led by other children.
As Geeta Rao Gupta of the International Center for Research on Women says, "It is a cruel irony that, in AIDS-related illness and death, women now have equality with men - equality that has been denied them in life." In the areas worst hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, ... the less economically empowered a woman is, the more vulnerable she is to infection by HIV. The most common interventions against HIV/AIDS urge people to follow the ABCs of protection; 'Abstain, Be faithful to your partner or use a Condom.' The reality on the ground has however shown that for women it is not that simple to prevent infection. If a woman does not feel safe physically and financially she does not have the power to implement the ABCs of HIV prevention."[4]
Estimates for 2005 show that, every minute, a woman dies of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth – this is more than 500,000 women annually and 10 million over a generation. Almost all of these women – 99 per cent – live and die in developing countries.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 22, compared to 1 in 7,300 in developed regions.
Every year, more than 1 million children are left motherless and vulnerable because of maternal death. Children who have lost their mothers are up to 10 times more likely to die prematurely than those who have not.
In Southern Asia only 40% of births were attended by skilled health personnel, and only 47% in sub-Saharan Africa – the two regions with the greatest number of maternal deaths.
The vast majority of maternal deaths can be prevented. In industrialized countries, deaths owing to pregnancy and childbirth are rare. In Africa and South Asia, complications during pregnancy and childbirth remain the most frequent cause of death for women. In some countries the number is increasing.
The risk of maternal mortality increases with each pregnancy. Yet, 200 million women who would like to delay or avoid childbearing have no access to safe and effective contraceptives. Meeting unmet needs for contraception alone would reduce up to a third of maternal deaths globally. Having fewer pregnancies and spacing births increases the survival rate of both women and their children. [5]
Violence against women, including sexual violence, has serious health consequences. In addition to the obvious physical injuries, it can result in short-term and long-term sexual and reproductive health
problems. It exposes women to HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Its effect on mental
health can be as serious as its physical consequences, and
may be even longer lasting. It can result in suicide, murder or honor killing. Victims can be ostracized by their families and communities.
Violence is most commonly caused by a husband or male partner, and is frequently invisible: it happens behind closed doors and legal systems and cultural norms do not treat it as a crime, but rather as a "private" family matter, or a normal part of life. [6]
For more information, visit our Violence page.
According to the Global Health Council [7] the ten leading causes of death for women, 15-44 years, in the developing world are:
1. HIV/AIDS
2. Maternal Conditions
3. Mental Illness
4. Other non-communicable diseases
5. Injuries
6. Other Infectious Diseases
7. Cardiovascular Diseases
8. STI’s excluding AIDS
9. Respiratory Infections
10. Nutritional Deficiencies
An estimated 18-20 million children will be without one or both parents in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2010.
Only 38% of young women have accurate, comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS according to the 2008 UNAIDS global figures.
Reproductive health services for all women would cost $12 billion a year – as much as is spent on perfumes in Europe and the US every year. [8]
16.4 million women in the world are living with HIV and AIDS. [9]
Around half of pregnant women in Southern Asia and one third of women in many countries in Africa receive no antenatal care. [10]
Sexually transmitted diseases afflict five times as many women as men. [1]
Gender-based violence compromises reproductive health in one in three women. [11]
The UN Millennium Development Goal #5 is to improve maternal health. [12]
References
The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) funds community-based initiatives that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa.They focus on five critical areas:
