This comment in the October 2023 issue of The Lancet discusses gender equity in health care and how improving access to sexual and reproductive health services can lead to a considerable reduction in maternal mortality rates. Other reports emphasise how collecting and analysing sex-disaggregated and gender data can help identify disparities in access to education, health care, and other services that are crucial for overall development.
Ignoring sex and gender differences in study designs to assess the safety and efficacy of medical products can lead to subsequent harm. But is there political will to truly learn the lessons from past epidemics, and recognise the crucial need and value of embedding gender as an integral and cross-cutting theme in the Pandemic Accord and the interim medical countermeasures platform?
