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.