A landmark report from the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health warns that the escalating global anti-gender movement is having a devastating impact on the health of millions. Released Monday, the report — Achieving Gender Justice for Global Health Equity — underscores the urgent need for governments and institutions to recognize and respond to the critical role gender plays in health outcomes.
The Commission’s findings are both sobering and timely, as new research from Global Health 50/50 reveals that over a quarter of U.S.-based global health organizations removed or altered references to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and gender equality on their websites in just the past month. These shifts mark a growing backlash that the Commission says is undermining decades of progress in health equity.
Weaponizing Gender: A Global Crisis
Through a multi-year investigation involving experts across nine countries, the Commission examined how gender is being weaponized and manipulated to stifle progress in health systems worldwide. According to the report, gender has become a divisive and contested term, co-opted by a well-funded, highly organized anti-gender movement seeking to roll back rights and obstruct progress in gender justice.
The politicization of gender has never had a more devastating impact on global health, notes Professor Sarah Hawkes, CGGH Co-Chair, Head of Global Population Health at Monash University Malaysia and Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Global Health 50/50. “We are in the fight of our lives.”
The report outlines how the anti-gender movement — from restrictive policies during the Trump administration to crackdowns on activists in countries like Russia and Peru — is exerting global influence. This includes criminalization of LGBTQ+ and women’s rights activists, suppression of sexual and reproductive health services, and deliberate disinformation campaigns. Between 2013 and 2017 alone, anti-gender initiatives received $3.7 billion in funding — more than triple the global funding for LGBTI movements.
Global Health Community Falling Short
Despite decades of evidence showing the intersection of gender and health, the global health community has largely failed to take meaningful action, the report finds. Misunderstandings about gender have led to inequitable health outcomes, and the lack of coordinated response leaves millions vulnerable.
Professor Hawkes emphasized that the anti-gender rhetoric is not confined to authoritarian governments. More than half of Gen Z men in a recent survey believe that promoting women’s equality has gone too far, she said. The 99% who will pay the price of this ideology must be mobilized under a shared agenda of justice and human rights.
A Roadmap for Action: Three Priority Recommendations
The Commission outlines three critical recommendations for decision-makers to harness what it calls an “untapped gender dividend” — the potential for improved health outcomes through gender justice:
- Determine whether an international legal definition of gender is needed, to create a guardrail to understand and protect gender, building on the work of UN treaty bodies.
- Establish and resource a hosting platform for data to collate integrated monitoring data related to gender justice in global health.
- Establish new mechanisms to finance gender justice in global health through a ring-fenced gender justice allocation from existing tax on health-harming products.
Elhadj As Sy, Co-Chair of the Commission and Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, echoed the urgency of these recommendations. “Achieving gender justice in global health will create positive benefits for all people, improving health outcomes and reducing health inequalities. Where gender justice has been a goal of policies, programmes and practices, health inequities are reduced, and levels of population health and wellbeing can improve.”
The Stakes Are High
With the global health community at a critical crossroads, the report calls for immediate action to reverse the rollback of gender rights and protect the health and dignity of populations worldwide. Inaction, it warns, will not only reinforce inequality but also jeopardize the foundation of universal human rights and global health security.
For full access to the report and related resources, visit The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health and Global Health 50/50.
