Women contribute about three trillion dollars to the health of the world’s population – about half of it unpaid, according to a major analysis published today.
The unpaid labour amounts to 2.47% of national income, according to the report in The Lancet.
Most it involves domestic care of family members and is only given state compensation in small number of countries, including the UK, Turkey and Costa Rica, the researchers say.
The researchers say the findings highlight the value of investing in women’s health.
One of those involved in a commission on women and health, which produced the report, Professor Ana Langer, of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, said: "Too often, women’s health is essentially equated to maternal and reproductive health.
"However, the evidence outlined by this Commission overturns this conventional interpretation, and we urge the global health community and policymakers worldwide to embrace a more holistic – and realistic – understanding of women and health.
"It’s time to acknowledge women’s comprehensive health needs throughout their lives, and their productive contributions to health care and society as a whole, as well as their similarly important roles as mothers and homemakers."
She added: "Worldwide, most providers of health care are women. But the health systems to which they contribute so much are often completely unresponsive to their needs – despite the fact that they rely heavily on their paid and unpaid contributions.
"Women are undervalued and unsupported by the systems in which they work, and this problem is exacerbated by inequitable access to healthcare experienced by too many women worldwide – particularly those in the most vulnerable groups."
Lancet 5 June 2015 [abstract]
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