Penn Nursing is proud to host the Philadelphia launch of a major, new report, “Women and Health: The Key for Sustainable Development,” issued by the Commission on Women and Health, a partnership between The Lancet, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

The Commission found women are contributing around $3 trillion to global health care, but nearly half of this is unpaid and unrecognized. The November 18 event will be a discussion featuring national and international speakers and led by the Commission’s co-leaders, Afaf Meleis, PhD, DrPS (hon), FAAN, former dean and professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and Ana Langer, MD, director of the Women and Health Initiative at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, about the implications of the report’s recommendations and how they translate into agendas for research and action.

The event will be held at Penn’s Biomedical Research Building, 421 Curie Blvd., from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a reception following. It is free and open to the public, but registration is required.  

The Commission’s findings were first published in The Lancet (September 19, 2015). It offers one of the most exhaustive analyses to date of the evidence surrounding this complex relationship and demonstrates that women’s distinctive contribution to society is under-recognized and undervalued — economically, socially, politically and culturally.

“The report underlines that women are important providers as much as recipients of health care, and that globally, their changing needs in both of these respects are not being met,” said Meleis.

The Commission on Women and Health was formed in 2012 and brought together leading thinkers, heads of programs and activists from around the world to examine the complex links between biological, economic and social factors in improving women’s health throughout their lives — including the substantial effects of rapid globalization, urbanization and climate change, all of which have inequitable effects on women’s health.

The Commission offers a series of recommendations including a call to recognize the importance of timely and appropriate investments in girls and women to enhance their status, strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes, and to ensure that development planning and financing for health is responsive to the concerns and needs of women. Among other recommendations, women are urged to participate at all levels of decision making in society, fostering leadership in health nationally and internationally.

Click here to view the full release.