International Women’s Day 2025

“Gender is often insufficiently considered in building health policies and programs aimed to address the global burden of various diseases. Ignoring gendered experiences, dynamics and patterns continues to perpetuate global health inequities. Developing research that recognizes and confronts gendered inequities in health research, policy, and governance is critical in addressing disproportionate global burdens of disease.”

Elizabeth Mebrahtu – Research Fellow

“Research plays a vital role in driving gender-inclusive and equitable policies by providing evidence-based insights into systemic barriers, disparities, and best practices. It informs decision-makers, ensuring that policies are not only inclusive but also effective in addressing gender-related challenges. By highlighting diverse experiences and data-driven solutions, research empowers organizations and policymakers to create meaningful, lasting change.”

Esosa Ikponmwosa – Administrative Coordinator

“Research plays an integral role in informing gender-inclusive policy; without research that first identifies gender and equity impacts we cannot ensure future policies are gender-sensitive or better yet, gender-responsive.”

Fiona Emdin – Research Fellow

“Research is essential in shaping gender-responsive and equitable policies by helping us identify gaps and biases in our knowledge while providing us with evidence-based solutions to address these. By applying a gender lens to research, we can ensure that policies meet the needs of our diverse populations and promote fairness, ultimately advancing gender equity.”

Laura Rosa – Research Assistant

“Research helps us understand how gender intersects with socioeconomic and sociocultural factors, which differ across contexts. By addressing these intersections, we can design policies that are more inclusive, equitable, and responsive to diverse lived experiences. “

Jaskeerat Singh – Research Fellow

“Transformative changes in a society requires that we first open our eyes to the problems, and that we engage in changing the root cause. Research is the data we gathered on the pay gap, the knowledge we create unraveling the power differential, the framework we build for gender-sensitive action plans. More equitable and gender inclusive practices and policy are about all of us applying what we learned from research, seeing the practices and gaps in our own organizations, and ensuring we collectively do better; that we think of who is left out and how we share the power. ” 

Geneviève Boily-Larouche – Managing Director of the AMR Policy Accelerator

“Research helps bring evidence and new ideas into the process of policymaking. And the inclusion of gender and equity within research ensures that better policies are created to better the lives of everyone equally.”

Sofia Gutierrez – Knowledge Translation Specialist

“Equity in research is not just a principle; it sharpens inquiry, strengthens evidence, and drives solutions that work for everyone. This International Women’s Day, let’s challenge biases and amplify diverse voices in science.”

Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo – Investigator

“From farms to labs, gender may shape who leads, who is heard, and who benefits. Research drives equity by challenging biases, improving access, and ensuring diverse voices shape the future of animal and human health.”

Kayla Strong – Research Lead

“Research helps provide empirical evidence for the immense benefits of being more gender-inclusive and to advocate for more equitably-designed policies and practices.”

Julia Bishop – Director of Global Engagement

“Research allows us to shine a light on gender and equity dimensions that may have been historically understudied or misunderstood, and by doing so, becomes a springboard for more effective advocacy for policy and practice”

Vesela Ivanova – Policy Advisor

“Research is a powerful driver of gender-inclusive policy, providing credible data for advocacy and evidence-based action. By revealing how gender inequities intersect with factors like socioeconomic status and healthcare access, it informs targeted interventions that may work to reduce disparities and promote more equitable health outcomes.”

Kadia Petricca – Senior Policy Lead

“Research can amplify the lived experiences of women and dismantle stereotypes that exclude them from participating in society.”

Amina Yaqoob – Research Assistant

“Research is key to creating gender-inclusive and equitable policies by identifying gaps, assessing what works, and ensuring decisions are based on data, not assumptions. It helps uncover structural barriers that disproportionately impact women and gender-diverse individuals, allowing for more targeted and effective solutions. As researchers it is our responsibility to question our own privileges and recognize discriminatory practices within institutions and communities.”

Heba Qazilbash – Policy Advisor

“Gender plays a critical role in health equity; however, limited research has been conducted to identify the interlinkages between gender and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Therefore, strengthening and applying a gender lens to research to uncover the gender and equity dimensions of AMR—especially those that are under-researched—is crucial to advocating for the incorporation of gender-inclusive policies into national action plans on AMR.” 

Suzanne Naro – Policy Advisor II

“Research is critical to identifying the barriers women face in systems that were designed without our participation. Effective communications also plays an important role by sharing the stories of our lived experiences and translating research findings into formats that can be actioned by policymakers, practitioners and the public.” 

Demetria Tsoutouras – Director of Communications

“Research unlocks a fairer world. It shines on the gaps in gender equity and helps us craft policies that bring everyone into the light, ensuring no one gets left in the dark!”

Nicole Chung – Research Assistant

“Research can help us identify the structural drivers of gender-based differences in health, understand the lived experience of different groups, and amplify perspectives that may be marginalised in decision-making processes. Achieving these aims requires a reflexive and collaborative approach to our research practice. Through this, research can inform policy and practice to support more equitable outcomes across genders. “

Chloe Clifford Astbury – Research Associate

“Citizen science fiction” is a form of research-creation where people can explore a scientific challenge through roleplay in a sci-fi storyworld. As participants create characters and tell stories informed by their diverse real-life experiences, they surface insights from a multitude of perspectives. Through this kind of storytelling and “story-listening”, we can also receive each other’s knowledge with different ears than we might through a questionnaire, interview, or other research methods.” 

Alison Humphrey – Post Doctoral Fellow