International Women's Day 2026: 'Give to Gain'
Today is International Women’s Day, an annual event that raises awareness about the achievements of, and discrimination faced by, women worldwide. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Give to Gain’, which encourages us to consider what support we can give to contribute towards a more equitable world for women.
To mark International Women’s Day, we spoke to three of our members who are all global health researchers at different career stages. They told us about their research into women’s health, as well as the ways that gender has impacted their careers.
Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale is a Professor of Parasitology, the in-house Deputy Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, and the Institute’s Director of Neglected Tropical Disease Research, as well as head of its Molecular Parasitology Research Laboratory, a member of Africa Buruli ulcer Laboratory Network (BU-LABNET). She is a member of both the Meeting and Events Committee and the Policy and Advocacy Committee, as well as an Elected Trustee of RSTMH.
Laurentine Sumo is Associate Professor of Parasitology at the University of Ebolowa, Cameroon, and Senior Research Fellow at the Higher Institute for Scientific and Medical Research (ISM) in Cameroon. She is also a Fellow of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD). She is a Global Assessor for RSTMH and the author of two forthcoming book chapters about gender equity in STEM fields.
Tell us about your research into women’s health.
Amy explained how her research experience made her consider the importance of tailoring health interventions. ‘Under MiOra’s mentorship programme, I recently co-authored a study published in Women’s Health Reports,’ explained Amy. ‘In this cross-sectional study conducted in Los Angeles County, we explored women’s perceptions of vaginal self-collection for HPV testing following the recent approval of self-collection methods by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Our findings showed that women with lower levels of formal education were significantly more likely to perceive vaginal self-collection as difficult.
‘For me, this work reinforced the importance of equitable access to preventive care and the need to tailor innovations such as HPV self-sampling to the realities of diverse communities. It also strengthened my commitment to advancing women’s health research in low-resource and tropical settings like Burundi, where cervical cancer remains a major public health challenge.’
In her research, Laurentine also found a need for women’s health to be addressed through tailor-made interventions. She researches Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), which she described as ‘a chronic gynaecological condition caused by urogenital infection with a water-borne parasitic worm transmitted through contact with contaminated freshwater’, adding that it leads to ‘vaginal discharge, irregular bleeding, dyspareunia and, in some cases, infertility.’
Laurentine explained how her research has demonstrated the persistence of schistosomiasis ‘by delineating transmission hotspots where prevalence of infection remains as high as 50% despite decades of preventive chemotherapy’. She added: ‘These findings indicate that elimination targets set by WHO are unlikely to be achieved through routine interventions alone and call for more tailored and intensified control strategies to eliminate this debilitating infection and alleviate the suffering of women.’
Pheabian emphasised the need for gender to be a focus in all global health areas, not just those specifically affecting women. ‘While my research may not always be framed strictly as “women’s health,” its impact is profoundly gendered,’ she remarked, ‘especially in contexts where infectious diseases intersect with maternal responsibilities, societal expectations, and structural inequalities. My involvement in controlling and managing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), such as Buruli ulcer and other skin conditions, has significant implications for women and girls’. She highlighted that ’in many endemic communities, women often seek diagnosis later due to roles in caregiving, financial dependency, stigma, and limited autonomy in accessing healthcare.
What gender equity or women's health challenges should the global health sector be focusing on in the year ahead?
While each practitioner had some different areas of focus, there was also significant crossover in the key priorities that Pheabian, Laurentine, and Amy identified.
Gender-based violence: Laurentine was concerned by ‘the alarming rise in gender-based violence in many regions in recent years’, which has ‘immediate and long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences for survivors, profoundly affecting their health’. Likewise, Pheabian commented that ‘as vulnerabilities increase due to conflict and instability, it's crucial to integrate prevention and response strategies for gender-based violence into health programming’.
Representation of women in leadership:‘On this International Women’s Day, it is essential that we not only amplify women’s voices but also ensure that women are meaningfully represented in research leadership, policymaking, and health system design,’ stated Amy. Laurentine’s two forthcoming book chapters, “Gender bias in STEM: A critical thinking” and “Why gender equity matters”, explore the importance of improving gender inclusion in research. Pheabian also advocated for improving ‘women's representation in leadership roles by creating pathways, mentorship programs, and equitable research funding’.
Integration of women’s health into healthcare systems: Speaking about her specialist area of FGS, Laurentine noted that it is ‘insufficiently integrated into sexual and reproductive health programmes’. As a result, FGS is ‘frequently misclassified as Sexually Transmitted Infections’ which, she adds, ‘perpetuates stigma, delays appropriate treatment, and undermines the health and dignity of affected women and girls. More broadly, Pheabian argued that the global health sector must ‘incorporate gender analysis in health policies and programs, using sex-disaggregated data’.
Equitable access: Pheabian called for the global health sector to ‘address barriers for women in low and middle-income countries to access essential services like maternal health and cancer ‘screenings. Amy highlighted the example of HPV screenings for cervical prevention, criticising the ‘structural inequities that limit women’s access to care such as poverty, limited education, cultural stigma, and gender-based violence’.
Earlier this year I was lucky enough to attend a two-day event on women’s health, ahead of the World Health Summit, hosted by the Gates Foundation. During the meeting I was delighted to hear about the women’s health work recently funded, and also the plans and goals of so many organisations: for research, for new grants programmes, new investment in the area and of policy influence. I left the meeting aware of the importance of integrating women’s health into health systems and other programmes, to ensure it is not seen as a niche area, along with the need for improved data and alignment of partners and strategies.
How do you feel that your gender has affected your career in global health?
‘Leadership roles in global health, particularly at senior decision-making levels, remain disproportionately male-dominated. Women often face added expectations to balance their professional duties with family and caregiving responsibilities’, commented Pheabian. ‘There are also subtle biases regarding authority and assumptions about our availability for international travel and field deployments.’
Laurentine shared her own experiences, explaining: ‘During my journey as an independent Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Bamenda, and now as an Associate Professor at the University of Ebolowa in Cameroon, my career path has been unconventional,’ she said. ‘I experienced two major interruptions: maternity leave (as a mother of four) and a serious health challenge, cervical cancer, a disease that disproportionately affects women. These difficulties I faced significantly slowed my career progression, yet they strengthened rather than diminished my determination to help shape a future in which female scientists have equitable opportunities in STEM fields.’
Despite the challenges, all three women noted the opportunities that womanhood brings. Amy highlighted that ‘being a woman has allowed me to connect deeply with female patients and youth, particularly when discussing sensitive topics such as sexual and reproductive health’. Pheabian also felt that being a woman ‘enhanced my ability to engage meaningfully with female patients and community members’.
Laurentine highlighted how the difficulties she has faced have bolstered her determination to ‘mentor, support, and build the capacities of women pursuing careers in science and technology’. Pheabian similarly viewed her gender as a ‘source of resilience and a valuable perspective’. She added that it has ‘deepened my commitment to mentorship, representation, and creating supportive environments for early-career female scientists’.
Women in science and global health still face implicit biases and underrepresentation in leadership roles. Navigating these spaces has required resilience and confidence. However, these challenges have also motivated me to advocate for stronger mentorship networks for young women. Amy Delicia Akineza
Our team
At RSTMH, International Women’s Day is always an opportunity to take stock of how much gender equity is present in the Society, our team, and in our work. We are proud to be a female-led organisation, with 15 out of our 27 combined Board and Committee members being women. Our joint Presidents Dr Wendy Harrison and Professor Margaret Gyapong, and our Vice President, Dr Sarah Rafferty are women, and our team of 10 has 8 women.
Across our incredible network of volunteers, we can see some room for improvement. For example, only 12% of our Student Ambassadors, 17% of our Country Ambassadors, and 33% of editorial board members across our journals are female.
In our wider work women are almost equally represented in our Early Career Grants Programme, where 49% of grant awardees between 2019 and 2024 have been female. Through these grants, we have supported dozens of research projects into global health issues in low-resource settings, including some specifically on women’s health topics such as menstrual and menopause health, endometriosis and cervical cancer. We don’t yet have the data for all areas of our work, but this is something we are working to improve.
Achieving gender equity is extremely important for our medals and awards, as these are ways in which we recognise success and achievements in work across the tropical medicine and global health communities. Though we have awarded female winners to each of our medals and awards since 2018 we still receive far fewer nominations for and from women, than men, each year. This is something we are focused on for 2026, as we know that these successes and achievements exist in all regions, waiting to be recognised.
This International Women’s Day, RSTMH is proud to amplify the voices of women within global health.
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