Count Her In. Invest In Women. Accelerate Progress #IWD2024
Written by Rachel Mather Epidemiologist at Field Epi in Action - March 8 2024
This International Women’s Day we are reflecting on the United Nations theme ‘Count Her In. Invest in women. Accelerate progress’. This theme speaks to the evidence that investing in greater economic inclusion of women benefits everyone. If workplace gender gaps had closed in 2017, by now we would be enjoying an additional annual economic contribution of US$28 trillion.(1) In health, this would support millions of new jobs, delivering universal health coverage for all by 2030.(2) If women were equitably represented in leadership roles, our communities would benefit from greater social investment in domains such as education, health and social protections.(3, 4) In fact, there is evidence that having more women in leadership saves lives: a study in India found “that a 10 percentage point increase in women’s representation [amongst state legislators] results in a 2.1 percentage point reduction in neonatal mortality.”(5)
What about women in field epidemiology?
Unfortunately, for a profession whose bread and butter calls for examination of population data to identify trends, we have not been very good at turning the magnifying glass upon ourselves. We don’t have rigorous data on the profile of a contemporary field epidemiologist, much less a sense of the economic contributions of field epis – and especially not stratified by sex. While FEiA is leading the development of an impact evaluation framework for Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) that will enable programs to demonstrate the impact of field epis on health systems, with 98 programs operating across more than 200 countries and territories, published evaluations of FETPs are thin on the ground.(6)
Gender inequalities in our field
While field epidemiology started with essentially all-male cohorts in 1950s America, our best estimates indicate that today, at least half of graduates around the world are female.(7, 8) Still, as evidenced by attendance of high-level strategy meetings across the field epidemiology network, women remain underrepresented in field epidemiology leadership.(9, 10) And if we think wider about what ‘inclusion’ means, preliminary data collected by FEiA highlights that women in field epidemiology experience gender-based discrimination, and perceive themselves as needing to work harder than men to access the same opportunities. Many FETPs fail to provide modern inclusivity measures such as parental leave, while women are frequently left with out-of-pocket expenses to secure safe accommodation and transport while on field deployments. You don’t need to be an economist to understand that the impacts of these gaps are profound – beyond links to job satisfaction, its likely both the economic contributions and public health impacts of field epis are hampered by gender inequalities in our field.
Where to from here?
We have spoken before about the gender analysis of FETPs FEiA is leading – we want to understand how the field epidemiology profession and FETPs can be gender-responsive to make field epi as inclusive as possible. But it will be a while before the data is in, and it will tell just one part of the story. With the formation of the Global Field Epidemiology Partnership signalling wider investment in FETPs, the wider field epidemiology community – TEPHINET, funders, individual FETPs and regional networks, like SAFETYNET – must prioritise investment in women and other marginalised groups. Start counting women – and everyone else – to accelerate progress of the full social and economic impacts of field epidemiology.
References
1. Deliver W. Deliver for good. Investments in girls & women power progress for all. Cambridge, MA: The Lancet; 2017 March 2017.
2. Delivered by women, led by men: a gender and equity analysis of the global health and social workforce. Online report. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Report No.: 24.
3. Prasad A. Roopa Dhatt: advancing gender equality in global health leadership. The Lancet. 2020;396(10261):1480.
4. Health WiG. WGH Chapter Manifesto 2021. 2021.
5. Bhalotra S, Clots-Figueras I. Health and the Political Agency of Women. American Economic Journal Economic Policy. 2014;6(2):164-97.
6. TEPHINET. Training Programs Atlanta: TEPHINET; 2023 [updated 2023, December; cited 2024 March 7]. Available from: https://www.tephinet.org/training-programs.
7. Thacker SB, Dannenberg AL, Hamilton DH. Epidemic Intelligence Service of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 50 Years of Training and Service in Applied Epidemiology. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2001;154(11):985-92.
8. Parry AE, Kirk MD, David NDO, Colquhoun SM, Housen T. Shaping applied epidemiology workforce training to strengthen emergency response: a global survey of applied epidemiologists, 2019–2020. Human Resources for Health. 2021;19:1-13.
9. O'Carroll P, Kirk MD, Baggett K, Herrera D. The Global Field Epidemiology Roadmap: A Report of the Meeting held at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center June 11-15, 2018. Online report. Decatur, Georgia: The Task Force for Global Health; 2018 16 November 2018.
10. O'Carroll P. A report of the global field epidemiology roadmap implementation meeting. Decatur GA; 2019 Oct 29.
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