20 May 2025 | Organizer: Framework Convention on Global Health Alliance and the Alliance for Health Promotion
GENDRO is proud to co-sponsor the WHA78 Partners Meeting on Health Equity and the Right to Health, held at Campus Biotech Innovation Park in Geneva. Co-organized by the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance and the Alliance for Health Promotion, the event brought together civil society organizations and global health advocates to strengthen collaboration and advance the right to health for all.
Moderated by Dr. Leigh Kamore Haynes (Simmons University / FCGH Alliance), the meeting featured a dynamic exchange on the structural determinants of health inequities and strategies for collective action.
We thank our co-sponsors and all participants for their commitment to building a more equitable future.
Elise M Garton, Gavin Allman, Hyo Sook Bae, Kalina Duncan, Ibithal Fadhil, Nazik Hammad, Shirin Heidari, Meritxell Mallafré-Larrosa, Jennifer Moodley, Rachel Nugent, Isabelle Soerjomataram, Carolyn D Taylor, Karla Unger-Saldaña, Verna Vanderpuye, Ophira Ginsburg.
The Lancet – April 15, 2025
The Lancet Commission on women, power, and cancer,1 hereafter referred to as the Commission, was created to address urgent questions at the intersection of social inequality, cancer risk and outcomes, and the status of women in society. Cancer is an increasingly important public health threat and economic challenge to all people worldwide, but has a disproportionate impact on the lives and livelihoods of women, which creates downstream impacts for society. The Commission applied an intersectional feminist lens2 to inform a nuanced, evidence-based, gendered approach to cancer risk and cancer control in response to this threat. The Commission report was published in September, 2023, with ten key findings and corresponding priority recommendations directed at a broad range of stakeholder communities: international organisations, national and subnational governments, researchers and research funders, civil society, and the private sector.1 To increase the likelihood that the recommendations set out in the Commission will be adopted and operationalised by multiple stakeholders, and to support the uptake of these recommendations, the authors proposed a framework and set of key performance indicators to guide implementation and to increase engagement of the global community at the nexus of gender, power, and cancer.
Mathias Wullum Nielsen, Elena Gissi, Shirin Heidari, Richard Horton, Kari C. Nadeau, Dorothy Ngila, Safiya Umoja Noble, Hee Young Paik, Girmaw Abebe Tadesse, Eddy Y. Zeng, James Zou, Londa Schiebinger
Nature – April 9, 2025
Intersectionality describes interdependent systems of inequality related to sex, gender, race, age, class and other socio-political dimensions. By focusing on the compounded effects of social categories, intersectional analysis can enhance the accuracy and experimental efficiency of science. Here we extend intersectional approaches that were predominantly developed in the humanities, social sciences and public health to the fields of natural science and technology, where this type of analysis is less established. Informed by diverse global and disciplinary examples—from enhancing facial recognition for diverse user bases to mitigating the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized populations—we extract methods to demonstrate how quantitative intersectional analysis functions throughout the research process, from strategic considerations for establishing research priorities to formulating research questions, collecting and analysing data and interpreting results. Our goal is to offer a set of guidelines for researchers, peer-reviewed journals and funding agencies that facilitate systematic integration of intersectional analysis into relevant domains of science and technology. Precision in research best guides effective social and environmental policy aimed at achieving global equity and sustainability.
8 April 2025 | Organizer: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Team of Specialists on Gender-Responsive Standards
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to expand rapidly, it is crucial to ensure that the most vulnerable populations are not neglected or rendered further invisible. AI systems, which are increasingly used in decision-making across various sectors such as healthcare, finance, recruitment, and public services, often inherit and amplify historical gender biases present in training data, model design, and algorithmic assumptions. These biases perpetuate systemic disadvantages for women and marginalized gender groups, reinforcing structural inequalities, limiting economic and professional opportunities, and restricting access to essential services.
Welcome
Lance Thompson, Head of Regulatory Cooperation Unit, ECTD, ECE [Bio & PPT]
Michelle Parkouda, Chair Team of Specialists on Gender-Responsive Standards (ToS-GRS) [Bio & PPT]
Keynote
Katrin J. Yuan, CEO Swiss Future Institute and Chair AI Future Council [Bio & PPT]
Panel discussions
Impact of Gender Bias in AI
Sergio Scandizzo, Head of Internal Modelling, European Investment Bank (financial services perspective) [Bio & PPT]
Shirin Heidari, President GENDRO (healthcare perspective) [Bio & PPT]
Costanza Bonadonna, Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Geneva (hiring process perspective) [Bio & PPT]
Claire Somerville, Geneva Graduate Institute, EQUALS-EU Project (digital environment)
How to address gender bias in standards for AI
Caitlin Kraft-Buchnan, Women @ the Table [Bio & PPT]
Cristina Finch, Head Gender and Security Division, Geneva Center for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) [Bio & PPT]
Have you ever thought about how biological sex and gender norms might influence development of different cancers and treatment outcomes?
Why do women experience worse toxicity side effects than men whilst receiving chemotherapy but have significantly better survival outcomes?
Why do non-smoking women get lung cancer at a higher rate than non-smoking men?
And what are the implications for how we should be studying cancer therapies and treating patients to optimise outcomes for the future?
Our Expert Guests:
🔹 PD Dr. Berna Özdemir – Senior Medical Oncology Consultant specialising in melanoma and GU cancer at University Hospital Bern, and founding member of the ESMO Gender Taskforce.
🔹 Shirin Heidari – Founding President of the not-for-profit organisation GENDRO and a driving force behind the SAGER (Sex and Gender Equity in Research) guidelines.
