Understanding Gender Imbalance in the Public Health Supply Chain Workforce: Research Findings and Recommendations

Women are the backbone of the care system, comprising 67% of the global health and social care workforce, and performing 76% of unpaid work. Globally, women in the health workforce are still underrepresented in positions of leadership, overrepresented in unpaid work and earn on average 27% less than men. This includes supply chain management, where women make up 41% of the overall public health supply chain (PHSC) workforce, and only 26% of supply chain management (SCM) positions. Given that women and children are priority targets for primary health care services, and that quality health services require access to health products, women’s perspectives are important to ensuring that supply chains are designed with women’s needs and preferences in mind. A gender imbalance within the PHSC profession has the potential to impact the accessibility, acceptability and affordability of community health care services, particularly among women. Female supply chain professionals are needed to ensure that supply chains are designed with women in mind; logistics systems must be designed with elements such as last mile delivery, digital tools and supply chain capacity that are compatible with the realities that female health workers face. VillageReach led exploratory research in order to better understand and address gender inequities along the PHSC career pathway in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).