Wellesley Institute

Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

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Aziza Mahamoud

Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network

About the Network

Web Site: Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network

Organizational Co-Hubs: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden  |  Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India.

 

Reports

Unequal, Unfair, Ineffective and Inefficient Gender Inequity in Health: Why it exists and how we can change it

Author(s): Gita Sen and Piroska Östlin

Published: September 2007

Summary: This report provides a background of how gender is implicated in and interacts with the social determinants of health, identifying gender relations of power as being one of the most influential social determinants of health. The report outlines differences in health needs and vulnerability to health problems based on gender, how gender norms affect perceptions of health needs, and how gender inequalities ultimately negatively impact the health of both women and men. The effects of globalization on gendered social determinants of health are described. The report also goes into detail about how gender inequalities are also implicated in the politics of health care systems, and in the content and process of health research. The report also documents the actions various government and non-governmental organizations have taken to address these challenges. Included is a description of Health Canada’s Women’s Health Indicators project which is creating a set of indicators aimed at improving how women’s health is measured. The describes a second Health Canada initiative in which it is soliciting research in identified gaps in women’s health indicators. The report also makes suggestions as to how gender inequalities might be addressed and mitigated, including a list of seven policy approaches that can address gender inequality in health. It is emphasized that addressing these issues will require actions both inside and beyond the health sector. The report annexes include a list of background papers, and two case studies on Tunisia and South Africa.

Final report

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Aziza Mahamoud

Aziza Mahamoud

Aziza is a former Research Associate at the Wellesley Institute (WI), leading the urban health systems modeling projects. Prior to joining WI, she was a Research Associate at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, where she worked with Dr. Osgood and his team in the Computer Science department. Her research there was primarily focused on building population-level dynamic, computational models of tuberculosis transmission and examining interventions. Before her modeling work, Aziza worked with the Saskatoon Health Region's communicable disease division, conducting surveillance studies on antibiotic resistant infections and developing disease prevention and control policies. Aziza holds a Masters in Public Health degree from University of Saskatchewan’s School of Public Health, where she focused on epidemiology and system dynamics, and a B.Sc. in the life sciences from the University of Waterloo. Her research interests include population and public health, syndemics, health disparities, and the application of system dynamics modeling tools to design and evaluate effective population health policies.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.