Gender and health: How social norms shape health outcomes worldwide
Gender and health: 1 in 3 women face violence—inequality harms everyone
Aisha sat in the clinic waiting room, her arm clearly broken. She’d fallen down the stairs—at least that’s what she told the nurse. The young doctor noticed bruises in different stages of healing, a pattern inconsistent with a single fall. When he gently asked if she felt safe at home, Aisha’s eyes filled with tears.
“My husband says if I tell anyone, he’ll divorce me and take the children,” she whispered. “In my community, divorced women are shamed. I’d have nowhere to go, no way to support myself. So I stay silent.”
The doctor wanted to help but felt helpless. His medical training hadn’t prepared him to address intimate partner violence. The hospital had no protocols, no support services, no safe space for Aisha to even have this conversation.
Aisha’s story illustrates how gender and health intersect. According to WHO’s work on gender, gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time.
WHO figures show that about 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. WHO’s fact sheet on violence against women provides comprehensive statistics.
For more on health equity issues, see our articles on women’s health and social determinants of health at ObserverVoice.com.
Understanding Gender vs. Sex
Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. Gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors of discrimination, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, age, geographic location, gender identity and sexual orientation, among others. This is referred to as intersectionality.
Gender interacts with but is different from sex, which refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females, males and intersex persons, such as chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs. Gender and sex are related to but different from gender identity. Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth.
WHO’s Q&A on gender and health clarifies these important distinctions. WHO also published frequently asked questions on sexual and gender diversity, health and human rights in October 2024, defining key concepts and terminology.
Gender influences people’s experience of and access to healthcare. The way that health services are organized and provided can either limit or enable a person’s access to healthcare information, support and services, and the outcome of those encounters.
For more on health system issues, see our articles on universal health coverage at ObserverVoice.com.
Gender Inequality’s Impact on Women and Girls
Gender inequality and discrimination faced by women and girls puts their health and well-being at risk. Women and girls often face greater barriers than men and boys to accessing health information and services. These barriers include restrictions on mobility; lack of access to decision-making power; lower literacy rates; discriminatory attitudes of communities and healthcare providers; and lack of training and awareness amongst healthcare providers and health systems of the specific health needs and challenges of women and girls.
Consequently, women and girls face greater risks of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, cervical cancer, malnutrition, lower vision, respiratory infections, and elder abuse, amongst others.
Women and girls also face unacceptably high levels of violence rooted in gender inequality and are at grave risk of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, and child, early and forced marriage. In November 2025, WHO published Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023 documenting the global burden. WHO also published RESPECT women: preventing violence against women, 2nd ed. in November 2025, providing evidence-based prevention strategies.
In December 2025, WHO released a checklist to support the inclusion of women with disabilities in research on violence against women, addressing intersecting vulnerabilities.
WHO’s infographics highlight specific challenges: Almost twice as many babies are born to adolescent girls in rural areas than in urban areas, and rural women play important roles as health and care workers.
WHO featured celebrating rural women as agents of health equity and community empowerment in October 2024.
For more on violence against women, see WHO’s comprehensive resources and our related articles at ObserverVoice.com.
How Rigid Masculinity Norms Harm Men and Boys
Harmful gender norms—especially those related to rigid notions of masculinity—can also affect boys and men’s health and wellbeing negatively. For example, specific notions of masculinity may encourage boys and men to smoke, take sexual and other health risks, misuse alcohol and not seek help or health care.
Such gender norms also contribute to boys and men perpetrating violence—as well as being subjected to violence themselves. They can also have grave implications for their mental health.
Dr. Michael Kimmel, who has studied masculinity and health for decades, explained: “Men are taught to be strong, silent, self-reliant. Asking for help is seen as weakness. So men ignore symptoms, avoid doctors, suffer in silence. They die younger than women partly because of these harmful norms about what it means to be a man.”
WHO’s infographic on ending coercion in mental health addresses how gender norms affect mental healthcare access.
Impact on People with Diverse Gender Identities
Rigid gender norms also negatively affect people with diverse gender identities, who often face violence, stigma and discrimination as a result, including in healthcare settings. Consequently, they are at higher risk of HIV and mental health problems, including suicide.
WHO/Europe published a brief on transgender health in the context of ICD-11, addressing classification and care standards.
WHO’s activity on improving LGBTIQ+ health and well-being with consideration for SOGIESC coordinates global efforts to address discrimination in healthcare.
WHO’s Comprehensive Response
WHO’s work is aligned with and supports the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, and SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. The Organization is committed to non-discrimination and to leaving no-one behind.
WHO’s fact sheet on universal health coverage (UHC) emphasizes that health services should be affordable, accessible and acceptable to all, and they should be provided with quality, equity and dignity.
Gender inequality hinders progress to fulfill everyone’s right to health. WHO’s fact sheet on human rights explains the connections between rights and health outcomes.
WHO develops norms, standards and guidelines on gender-responsive health service provision and delivery, and commissions research on issues focusing on gender equality, human rights and health equity. WHO’s Gender, Equity and Human Rights department coordinates this work.
WHO’s activities include mainstreaming gender in WHO’s programmes and actions, ensuring gender-responsive health systems, closing data gaps in gender, and advancing gender, equity and human rights through programmes and policies.
WHO also works on strengthening health sector response to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies, breaking barriers towards more equitable health systems for everyone, addressing health inequities among people living in rural and remote areas, and reviewing national health programmes to leave no one behind.
Global Resolutions and Training
The World Health Assembly adopted WHA 67.15 on Strengthening the role of the health system in addressing violence, in particular against women and girls, and against children and WHA 60.25 on Strategy for integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO.
WHO provides training resources including I know gender training and WHO, Gender mainstreaming for health managers.
WHO maintains data tools including monitoring health for the SDGs: 2019 World Health Statistics disaggregated by sex, the Health inequality monitor, and a tool for strengthening gender-sensitive national HIV and SRH monitoring.
WHO produced videos including WHO’s work on health response to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies in November 2024, Fair share for health and care in March 2024, and documentary series on human rights: violence against women, comprehensive sexuality education, contraception, and maternal mortality and morbidity in November 2020.
Aisha eventually found support through a new program training healthcare providers to recognize and respond to domestic violence. The doctor connected her with social workers, legal advocates, and a women’s shelter. “For the first time, someone understood,” she said. “They didn’t judge me. They helped me see I deserved safety and respect.”
With WHO’s comprehensive approach to gender and health, healthcare systems worldwide can become truly gender-responsive—ensuring everyone, regardless of gender or sex, can live a healthy life.
For more information, visit WHO’s gender and health topic page or explore related content at ObserverVoice.com.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
According to WHO’s work on gender, gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time. Gender interacts with but is different from sex, which refers to the different biological and physiological characteristics of females, males and intersex persons, such as chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs. Gender and sex are related to but different from gender identity, which refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth. Gender influences people’s experience of and access to healthcare. The way that health services are organized and provided can either limit or enable a person’s access to healthcare information, support and services. WHO’s Q&A on gender and health clarifies these distinctions. WHO published frequently asked questions on sexual and gender diversity, health and human rights October 2024. WHO/Europe published brief on transgender health in context of ICD-11. See our articles on health equity.
Gender inequality and discrimination faced by women and girls puts their health and well-being at risk. Women and girls often face greater barriers than men and boys to accessing health information and services. These barriers include restrictions on mobility; lack of access to decision-making power; lower literacy rates; discriminatory attitudes of communities and healthcare providers; and lack of training and awareness amongst healthcare providers and health systems of the specific health needs and challenges of women and girls. Consequently, women and girls face greater risks of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, cervical cancer, malnutrition, lower vision, respiratory infections, and elder abuse. Women and girls also face unacceptably high levels of violence rooted in gender inequality and are at grave risk of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, and child, early and forced marriage. WHO figures show about 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. WHO’s fact sheet on violence against women provides statistics. WHO published Violence against women prevalence estimates, 2023 and RESPECT women: preventing violence 2nd ed. November 2025. WHO released checklist for inclusion of women with disabilities in violence research December 2025. See our articles on women’s health.
Harmful gender norms—especially those related to rigid notions of masculinity—can affect boys and men’s health and wellbeing negatively. Specific notions of masculinity may encourage boys and men to smoke, take sexual and other health risks, misuse alcohol and not seek help or health care. Such gender norms also contribute to boys and men perpetrating violence—as well as being subjected to violence themselves. They can also have grave implications for their mental health. Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. Gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, age, geographic location, gender identity and sexual orientation. This is referred to as intersectionality. WHO’s infographic on ending coercion in mental health addresses how norms affect healthcare access. Rigid gender norms also negatively affect people with diverse gender identities, who often face violence, stigma and discrimination including in healthcare settings. Consequently, they are at higher risk of HIV and mental health problems, including suicide. WHO’s activity on improving LGBTIQ+ health and well-being coordinates efforts. See our articles on mental health.
WHO’s work is aligned with SDG 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all) and SDG 5 (achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). The Organization is committed to non-discrimination and leaving no-one behind. WHO develops norms, standards and guidelines on gender-responsive health service provision and delivery, and commissions research on gender equality, human rights and health equity. WHO’s Gender, Equity and Human Rights department and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research coordinate work. WHO’s activities include mainstreaming gender in programmes, ensuring gender-responsive health systems, closing data gaps in gender, advancing gender, equity and human rights through programmes, strengthening health sector response to gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies, breaking barriers towards more equitable health systems, addressing health inequities in rural areas, and reviewing national programmes to leave no one behind. See our articles on health equity.
WHO provides multiple resources. The World Health Assembly adopted WHA 67.15 on Strengthening health system role in addressing violence against women and girls and children and WHA 60.25 on Strategy for integrating gender analysis in WHO work. WHO provides training including I know gender training and Gender mainstreaming for health managers. WHO maintains data tools including monitoring health for SDGs: World Health Statistics disaggregated by sex, Health inequality monitor, and tool for strengthening gender-sensitive HIV and SRH monitoring. WHO produced videos on gender-based violence in humanitarian emergencies November 2024 and Fair share for health and care March 2024. WHO featured celebrating rural women October 2024, self-administered contraception in Nigeria December 2022, and community participation in Costa Rica May 2022. WHO’s fact sheets on universal health coverage and human rights provide context. See our articles on healthcare systems.
- WHO Gender and Health Topic
- WHO Q&A: Gender and Health
- WHO Fact Sheet: Violence Against Women
- WHO Fact Sheet: Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
- WHO Fact Sheet: Human Rights
Disclaimer: This article is an adaptation of publicly available information from WHO’s Gender and health
health topic page (WHO, Geneva. Licence: CC BYNC-SA 3.0 IGO). WHO is not responsible for the
content or accuracy of this adaptation. This content is for informational and educational purposes
only and does not constitute medical advice. ObserverVoice.com is a news and information platform
— not a healthcare provider.
Observer Voice is the one stop site for National, International news, Sports, Editor’s Choice, Art/culture contents, Quotes and much more. We also cover historical contents. Historical contents includes World History, Indian History, and what happened today. The website also covers Entertainment across the India and World.
