Narrative Review of Gender Inequities in Healthcare

Otieno Karanja J.

Faculty of Medicine Kampala International University Uganda

ABSTRACT

Gender inequities in healthcare remain a persistent and under-examined global challenge despite decades of advocacy and policy commitments to gender equality. This narrative review synthesizes contemporary evidence on the multidimensional manifestations of gender inequity across access to care, quality of services, health outcomes, and healthcare workforce dynamics. It highlights persistent conceptual ambiguities surrounding sex and gender and underscores the importance of examining gender as a relational and intersectional construct shaped by sociocultural norms, economic structures, and power hierarchies. Findings reveal that gender influences health-seeking behaviors, exposure to risk factors, responsiveness of health systems, and intra-household decision-making, producing uneven patterns of morbidity and mortality between women, men, and gender-diverse individuals. Evidence from multiple settings indicates that women experience lower quality of care for several chronic conditions, while men underutilize preventive and primary health services due to gendered norms. Structural inequalities in the health workforce, including occupational segregation and gendered constraints on leadership opportunities, further reinforce disparities. Intersectional identities, including race, socioeconomic status, age, and migration background, exacerbate vulnerability and shape differential access to care. While numerous policies and interventions promote gender equity, gaps persist in the implementation, evaluation, and integration of gender perspectives into health systems. Methodological challenges, including gender bias, poor sex-disaggregated data, and weak operational definitions of gender, remain barriers to progress. Overall, the review emphasizes the urgent need to strengthen gender-sensitive health research, expand intersectional policy frameworks, and transform health systems through equitable, gender-responsive approaches.

Keywords: Gender Inequity, Health Systems, Intersectionality, Access to Healthcare, and Gender-Sensitive Research.

CITE AS: Otieno Karanja J. (2026). Narrative Review of Gender Inequities in Healthcare. IDOSR JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 11(1):6-10. https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSRJSR/2026/11.1.610