In this episode we speak with Tikhala Itaye, Director, Global Movement Building for Women in Global Health—an organization built on a global movement with the largest network of women and allies working to challenge power and privilege for gender equity in health. Tikhala talks about the challenges women in health care are facing, and the importance of gender equity in health care and why it's not only good for women and those who identify as women, but for everyone.
In this episode we speak with Tikhala Itaye, Director, Global Movement Building for Women in Global Health—an organization built on a global movement with the largest network of women and allies working to challenge power and privilege for gender equity in health. Tikhala talks about the challenges women in health care are facing, and the importance of gender equity in health care and why it's not only good for women and those who identify as women, but for everyone.
Hello, and welcome to 15 minutes to change the world. We're in 15 minutes or less, you'll learn a bit more about the world and how you can help change it for the better. My name is Launi and I'm the host of this podcast today. We're speaking with Teka,<inaudible> the director of global movement building with women in global health. Teka is a human rights lawyer from Malawi who has spent the last 10 years in policy and advocacy movement, building work related to sexual reproductive health and rights. She led a regional youth network called AFM, the African youth and adolescent network that coordinates youth networks in 21 east and Southern African countries. She serves as a board member on the global partnership on maternal newborn and child help, and is the former chairperson for the global political movement on women and girls rights called she decides de college joins us remotely from Malawi today. Teka thank you so much, uh, for joining us and welcome to a podcast.
Speaker 2:
Hi Lama. Great to be part of this podcast.
Speaker 1:
Nice to, nice to have you with us. So first off, uh Teka could you tell us a bit about, uh, women in global health and the work that you do?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, sure. So firstly women in global health is the global movement with the largest network of women in allies who are really working together to challenge, power and privilege for gender equity and health. It started about in 15 and we've grown to about 50,000, over 50,000 supporters in 90 countries. And we have 40 national chapters in about 36 countries below for the world. The work that we do pretty much looks into enabling women from around the world to engage at national and global levels in policy development and leadership, particularly for women that are underrepresented from lower income countries. A lot of the, that we do as women in global health focuses on gender inequity in health, looking at gap in women leadership in the health sector, the gender pay gap, and also looking at ending sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in global health.
Speaker 1:
And how has your experience in training as a human rights lawyer shaped the lens through which you do, or you frame your global health work
Speaker 2:
As a human rights lawyer? The work that I've done in, in global health has really given me the urgency teacher that health is truly recognized and imposed as a human right as a lawyer itself. I think with just practicing being a lawyer, one of the key things we do is always thinking about, we need evidence to make a case. And a lot of the work that we do with women in global health is about advocacy and, and advocating health leaders all over the world to adapt gender policies and gender conservative practices, as well as say, and decent working conditions for women. And some of the key practices is just being a lawyer, has helped me look into how do we work with women and frontline health workers that are on the ground at across level, in different, uh, in different communities to hear these stories, to understand what is going on on the ground and use that as evidence to make a case, to really inform a lot of decision making at a national decision making level. There is a lot of data gap when it comes to the needs of women and girls and, and the work that we've done is really being able to galvanize that evidence at a country level, from different women, allies and networks. So when I was just sharing earlier on to say that the urgency that I have had in global health, especially being a human rights way is to really enforce that human rights element. We already know that health is internationally recognized as a human right, a basic right that each and every one of us is entitle, which means that at the core of the advocacy work, I do, I want to ensure that decision makers, health leaders, and any other institutions working on health or providing health related services are aware of that legal obligation to provide household that are acceptable and afford available for all as well as really providing those kind underlying of whether it gender. So, yeah, in a, in a nutshell, I, I would really tie it down to that kind of element of ensuring that health and all the spaces that we do is a human rights that is recognized and enforced.
Speaker 1:
And, and what does gender equity and health look like in, in practice? And, and why is it so important? Um, not just for women in those to identify as women, but for everyone,
Speaker 2:
To me, I would say gender equity really means fairness of treatment. And this is fairness of treatment all across the board, uh, holistically in, in all kind of the different levels of systems and structures that we work in. This could be looking at equal pay equal leadership. This would be fairness of treatment when it comes to even accessing healthcare services and providing healthcare services and contributing to decision making around health policies and practices should all be done with this gender equity lens. And this is important because we live in a world and country with diverse, which means that they are diverse needs that are all contributing to the economic development. And so if gender equity, this in turn creates, that will,
Speaker 1:
And Teka, what would you say are the biggest challenges right now when it comes to gender equity and health, and then what are some of the ways that we can overcome these challenges?
Speaker 2:
So there're quite a lot of challenges, but I will stick to the ones as, as women in global health that we are looking in into and advancing. And the first one is on gender pay gap in the health sector today, women account for 70% of the health and social care workforce, but women remain largely segregated in lower status and lower jobs in health and subject to gender discrimination and in some under the of violence. So we have large numbers of women in health that working the protection of legislation at pushing for better pay or even underpaid. And this general gap in the health sector is higher than other sectors, despite it being a female majority profession. And that's been one of the biggest challenges we've been advancing and, and some of the, the ways to overcome this has been ensuring that the voices, especially the voice of the frontline health workers or the women working in health with social care workers are really speaking out against these issues, getting stories out there and using those opportunities to dialogue with different perspective, health leaders of the institutions of the, to really change these practices, the workplace, um, violence and sexual harassment in, in the house sector has been also a big issue, which is also often hidden. I think, as, as women, we, we struggle in, in now different workspaces to speak out on any violence or sexual harassment. Cause we know that sometimes of the power dynamics and with spaces that we fear what is going to happen to our job and the financial security when I report these issues. And as women in global health, we, we have been doing some work in, in cooling this out, um, in gathering these stories and, and finding a safe space for women to share what is going on in the different spaces. They working and being, being able to hold different key institutions accountable. And I think that is a key thing of having to overcome some of these challenges. The more we bring them out in the open, the more we call out statements. We've had big statements that have gone out to the world health organization, just cooling out on different violence and sexual harassment that's happening in different and countries and holding them accountable to it. And thirdly, I would say is in the gap in women leadership, which is such a big piece. And I, I already already mentioned earlier on that there is a lot of gender inequity when it comes to women leadership in the health sector, but you know, politically as well, we see the harm that it causes when countries are led by men. If we just look for example, in what happened in Africa, Afghanistan in 2021, when you know, huge kind of political movement led by, uh, men where women and girls would be pushed out of education and jobs and public life. We've also seen the harm where, um, the Trump administration had put in place a global GRU, which affected the reproductive health needs of many women and girls all over the world. Um, COVID 19 responses. Majority of the national COVID-19 sources are led by men, which means that a lot of the resources that we have seen coming in around responding to the COVID-19 pandemic has been diverted away from reproductive maternal health ways for women and girls, all because of not having that diverse representation in these key leadership positions. So, yeah, I mean this, in, in the nutshell, I like the key challenges and, and for us, the biggest piece of work to overcome these challenges is to really push through in advocacy, getting these stories out there, getting the key data out there, getting women to speak out on these challenges and being able to present them to key health leaders, decision to adopt practices and policies that advance and address these challenges.
Speaker 1:
Where, and how are you seeing gender equity and health, uh, being put into action successfully?
Speaker 2:
So I would, um, like to talk about one initiative that, uh, one of the initiatives that women in global health has been leading in with different politically and globally. Um, and this is the gender health and care workforce initiatives. Um, this was launched with the government of funds and other political leaders. And the objectives of this with this initiative is to increase visibility, dialogue, commitment, to action on gender equity and health and care workforce. The initiative aims to drive action in, in full full pillars. The first one is around increasing the proportion of women in health and care leadership roles, recognizing the value of unpaid health and care work and the importance of equal pay, protecting women in the health and care against sexual harassment, violence at work and ensuring safe and decent working conditions for all health workers everywhere. The work that we've been doing under this initiative has really been a movement. We, we also are working with the world's health organization on this, and we really are mobilizing and galvanizing different member states, um, the organization to really commit and be part of this, this initiative, and to commit to align with those full pillars themselves. And, and I think these are one of the initiatives just when it was even launched last year, that you really have seen just a pickup of just political wealth and commitment to really address some key issues that we don't normally talk about or look into. So, um, I would say for now that, you know, that has been one of the successful platform and spaces that we have been looking into and an initiative that has really galvanized, um, political momentum on addressing some of these key issues.
Speaker 1:
Finally, how can our listeners in Canada and around the world learn more about gender equity and global health and to, to become advocates for it?
Speaker 2:
You know, issues of gender inequity are always all around us, whether it at home, um, in our schools, in our work spaces, um, in our social spaces. And I, I always wanna encourage people to say that when you see, um, or experience an of gender inequity, no matter of letting those stories, uh, be known to other, sharing those stories or speaking out against any inequity that's happening. Because I feel that, you know, the more these stories come out, the more change is most likely to happen. So I think the first thing is being wherever you add, being able to speak, stand up and speak out on gender equity in the spaces that you're already at. And, and secondly, to get involved with the work that we're doing in, in women in health, um, we're always so keen to work with different, um, allies and networks who are interested in the work that we do
Speaker 1:
Well, thank you so much for, uh, the time to join us today. And, uh, we really enjoyed speaking with you
Speaker 2:
And thank you very much, this really exciting share bit of our work.
Speaker 1:
Thank you. What can our listeners, uh, learn more about, uh, your organization? What what's your website?
Speaker 2:
So you can learn more about our organization by visiting www in G H dot.
Speaker 1:
All right. Thank you. Um, and thank you to all of our listeners for, for tuning in as always, you can stay up to date on our newest episode of 15 minutes to change the world on Spotify, apple podcasts, and by visiting care CA slash podcast.