Women contribute $3B to healthcare, but nearly half are unpaid

Women contribute about $3 billion to global healthcare, but nearly half of it goes uncompensated and unacknowledged, according to a report in The Lancet. A commission made up of experts, program leaders and activists from around the world analyzed women's health worldwide and its sociodemographic determinants, such as urbanization, globalization and climate change. Their results indicate promoting gender equality is key to improving healthcare. "It's time to acknowledge women's comprehensive health needs throughout their lives, and their productive contributions to healthcare and society as a whole, as well as their similarly important roles as mothers and homemakers," commission co-leader Ana Langer, head of the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement. Report (registration required)