Attracting and retaining women in health research is crucial as it will maximize creativity and innovation as well as increase gender competency and expertise in the field. To help address the gender gap in the research for health field in Cameroon, some women research scientists formed the Higher Institute for Growth in HEalth Research for Women (HIGHER Women) consortium to support and encourage the growth of women research scientists through a training institute with a Mentor–Protégé Program (MPP). The consortium set up a MPP aiming at providing professional guidance to facilitate protégés' growth and emergence in health research. The consortium has conducted two workshops aiming at increasing the early-career women's skills needed to launch their career and focusing on proposal writing with the aim of producing a fundable project. Since 2015, the consortium has brought together approximately 100 women comprising of 80 protégés. The most significant outcome is in the protégés' feedback from their annual evaluations. The protégés are now more likely to submit abstracts and attend international conferences. Some grants have been obtained as a result of the working relationship with mentors. The HIGHER women consortium works to develop a pipeline of women leaders in health research by fostering growth and leadership culture through their MPP.

In this essay, we discuss the under-representation of women in leadership positions in global health (GH) and the importance of mentorship to advance women's standing in the field. We then describe the mentorship model of GROW, Global Research for Women. We describe the theoretical origins of the model and an adapted theory of change explaining how the GROW model for mentorship advances women's careers in GH. We present testimonials from a range of mentees who participated in a pilot of the GROW model since 2015. These mentees describe the capability-enhancing benefits of their mentorship experience with GROW. Thus, preliminary findings suggest that the GROW mentorship model is a promising strategy to build women's leadership in GH. We discuss supplemental strategies under consideration and next steps to assess the impact of GROW, providing the evidence to inform best practices for curricula elsewhere to build women's leadership in GH.

The SiS (Sex in Science) Programme on the WGC (Wellcome Genome Campus) was established in 2011. Key participants include the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, EMB-EBI (EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute), Open Targets and Elixir. The key objectives are to catalyse cultural change, develop partnerships, communicate activities and champion our women in science work at a national and international level (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/about/sex-science). In this paper, we highlight some of the many initiatives that have taken place since 2013, to address gender inequality at the highest levels; the challenges we have faced and how we have overcome these, and the future direction of travel.

National efforts to reduce low birth weight (LBW) and child malnutrition and mortality prioritise economic growth. However, this may be ineffective, while rising gross domestic product (GDP) also imposes health costs, such as obesity and non-communicable disease. There is a need to identify other potential routes for improving child health. We investigated associations of the Gender Inequality Index (GII), a national marker of women's disadvantages in reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation, with the prevalence of LBW, child malnutrition (stunting and wasting) and mortality under 5 years in 96 countries, adjusting for national GDP. The GII displaced GDP as a predictor of LBW, explaining 36% of the variance. Independent of GDP, the GII explained 10% of the variance in wasting and stunting and 41% of the variance in child mortality. Simulations indicated that reducing GII could lead to major reductions in LBW, child malnutrition and mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Independent of national wealth, reducing women's disempowerment relative to men may reduce LBW and promote child nutritional status and survival. Longitudinal studies are now needed to evaluate the impact of efforts to reduce societal gender inequality.

Gender equality is considered paramount to the success of the Sustainable Development Goals and incorporated into global health programming and delivery, but there is great gender disparity within global health leadership and an absence of women at the highest levels of decision making. This perspective piece outlines the current gaps and challenges, highlighting the lack of data and unanswered questions regarding possible solutions, as well as the activity of Women in Global Health and efforts to directly address the inequity and lack of female leaders. We conclude with an agenda and tangible next steps of action for promoting women's leadership in health as a means to promote the global goals of achieving gender equality and catalyzing change.

Gender equity is imperative to the attainment of healthy lives and wellbeing of all, and promoting gender equity in leadership in the health sector is an important part of this endeavour. This empirical research examines gender and leadership in the health sector, pooling learning from three complementary data sources: literature review, quantitative analysis of gender and leadership positions in global health organisations and qualitative life histories with health workers in Cambodia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. The findings highlight gender biases in leadership in global health, with women underrepresented. Gender roles, relations, norms and expectations shape progression and leadership at multiple levels. Increasing women's leadership within global health is an opportunity to further health system resilience and system responsiveness. We conclude with an agenda and tangible next steps of action for promoting women's leadership in health as a means to promote the global goals of achieving gender equity.

Historically, women have been less likely to be supported through higher degree training programmes, and they continue to hold more junior positions in science. This paper reviews the current gender research and gender capacity-building efforts led by the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Created more than 40 years ago as the only United Nations-based Special Programme dedicated to research and research capacity building on infectious diseases, TDR has a longstanding track record both in supporting research into gender-specific questions and in research capacity strengthening among women scientists. We provide an overview of these approaches, then describe a recent pilot programme on Women in Science, designed to understand and remedy the gender gaps in health research. The programme focused on Africa, but it is hoped that the replication of such schemes in TDR and other international funding agencies will lead to more attention being given to women in infectious diseases research in other continents.

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The paper distils results from a review of relevant literature and two gender analyses to highlight reasons for gender imbalances in senior roles in global health and ways to address them. Organizations, leadership, violence and discrimination, research and human resource management are all gendered. Supplementary materials from gender analyses in two African health organizations demonstrate how processes such as hiring, deployment and promotion, and interpersonal relations, are not ‘gender-neutral’ and that gendering processes shape privilege, status and opportunity in these health organizations. Organizational gender analysis, naming stereotypes, substantive equality principles, special measures and enabling conditions to dismantle gendered disadvantage can catalyze changes to improve women's ability to play senior global health roles in gendered organizations. Political strategies and synergies with autonomous feminist movements can increase women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities. The paper also presents organizational development actions to bring about more gender egalitarian global health organizations.