Launch of the Series at Women Deliver

Gender norms and inequality seeps into every aspect of the life course, particularly health, for which there are very real life or death consequences affecting not only women, girls and gender minorities, but also men and boys. Biases and restrictive gender norms undermine the functioning of health systems, compromise the safety and well-being of providers and the health of communities and, as a result, lead to the under-performance of health systems for women, girls and gender minorities. 
 
The new Lancet Series explores how restrictive gender norms affect every aspect of everyone's wellbeing. The Series offers new perspectives and evidence on the impact of gender inequalities and norms on health, and the opportunities that exist to transform gender norms and inequalities.

The Lancet Series was launched on the global stage at Women Deliver 2019 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The 2-hour side event on Tuesday, June 4 hosted 200+ high-level stakeholders working across global health and development sectors as well as media. The event included a presentation of the Series key findings by lead authors from the Series (Lori Heise, Margaret Greene, Ann Weber, Ben Cislaghi, Jessica Levy, Bijetri Bose, Anita Raj, Niranjan Saggurti, Nandini Oomman, and Geeta Rao Gupta), a panel discussion with Dr. Gary Barker, CEO of Promundo, Musimbi Kanyoro, former President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, Pascale A Allotey, Director of the United Nations University, and Janece Daniel, youth advocate with I am a Girl Barbados facilitated by Lancet Executive Editor, Jocalyn Clark.  Closing comments were delivered from Katja Iverson, CEO Women Deliver and Sarah Hendricks, Director of Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.