Considerations for Women’s Leadership in Health Systems Through an Intersectional Lens

It is estimated that up to 70% of the health workforce are women; however, this pattern is not reflected in the leadership of health systems where women are under-represented. In this review, Zeinali et al. explore the literature around women’s leadership in the health sector in low- and middle-income countries using an intersectionality lens. The authors uncover four main intersecting themes across the reviewed studies and call for looking beyond gender and taking other intersecting social identities that create unique positionalities of privilege and/or disadvantage into account. This approach should be adopted across a diverse range of health systems programs and policies in an effort to strengthen gender equity in health and specifically human resources for health, and improve health systems governance, functioning and outcomes.