Key Things to know about Gender Equity in Eye Health

Women and girls continue to experience a disproportionate burden of sight loss, especially in low- and middle-income settings. The gender divide is expected to get worse without significant intervention, and will hamper our progress to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

There are several reasons that make a strong case for gender sensitive interventions in eye health and understanding them becomes vital to devise the most effective roadmap to the future of equal opportunities for women and girls to lead, work, demand, and access eyecare.

The Roadblocks

• Higher proportion of sight loss: There are more females than males with sight loss in every category of vision impairment and blindness. Of the 1.1 billion people with sight loss, 55% are women and most live in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).¹
• Greater risk for sight loss: Women are at increased risk of developing some eye conditions that can lead to vision impairment and blindness, such as age-related macular degeneration, trachomatous trichiasis and cataract. A recent systematic review from India found women have 35% higher odds of being blind compared to men.²
• Less access to care: Women are less likely to be able to afford or access services and information. For example, the recent report from the WHO on 2030 targets on effective coverage of eye care states that more men than women have accessed good quality cataract surgery and refractive error services (3.5% and 10.4% more men than women, respectively).³
• Under representation among decision makers: Women make up 70% of the health workforce but hold only 25% of senior roles.⁴ In the eye health sector, only 28.3% of eye health organizations’ board members are women.
• Additional barriers for ethnic minorities: Ethnic minority women hold the fewest leadership positions, including senior management, board positions, CEO and Chair roles⁵ and this leads lesser probability of actions that address the actual needs of the population.