Professor Friel appointed Commissioner of The Lancet’s new Commission on Gender & Global Health

Professor Sharon Friel, is one of the 25 independent Commissioners that will form The Lancet’s new Commission on Gender and Global Health.

The new Commission which The Lancet launched today, aims to address gender and global health inequalities both of which have been exasperated by COVID-19.

“I am delighted to be a Commissioner in The Lancet Gender and Global Health Commission,” said Professor Sharon Friel.

Set up to move beyond the evidence to catalyse action, this new commission will mobilise individuals and institutions to “redress imbalances in the gender- health relationship”, to produce “a politically informed, globally relevant, and intersectional feminist strategy for structural change in global health”.

“Gender is a social construction, influencing, and influenced by, the distribution of power and resources, conditions of daily life, and expectations and opportunities available to all people in all societies,” Professor Friel said.

“It interacts with other social factors to cause and exacerbate health inequities.

“Today, COVID-19 is shining a spotlight on the heightened vulnerabilities faced by women in particular as they form the bulk of front¬line health and care workers, and bear the greatest burden of domestic violence, household and child¬care responsibilities, and economic impacts of the pandemic.

“The work of the Lancet Commission couldn’t be more timely or important.”

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