Leadership for Health: How Women in Power Make a Difference
Originally published by McGregor McCance for The Darden Report
Around the world, women who are most adversely affected by limited access to contraceptives also have little influence in shaping reproductive health policies, research has shown. Intuition might suggest having more women leaders would improve contraceptive access and more broadly, women’s health outcomes.
But is that true?
Darden Assistant Professor of Business Administration Dwaipayan Roy wanted to find out if additional research would support that notion. Roy teamed with Amir Karimi, assistant professor with the Alvarez College of Business at the University of Texas at San Antonio, to seek answers by applying their expertise of supply chain management, econometric tools, and diversity and inclusion.
The answer based on their analysis was a resounding “yes.” Findings from Roy’s and Karimi’s research recently was published in the journal “Production and Operations Management.” To investigate the question, the researchers gathered and studied data to gauge the effect of female decision-makers on the procurement quantity of contraceptives in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
“Our analysis offers insights on the positive and synergistic impact of women health ministers and parliamentarians on contraceptive procurement, highlighting their pivotal role in improving contraceptive access in some of the most underserved regions of the world,” Roy said. “Our results have broad implications for national governments, international development organizations, and businesses.”
The Darden Report caught up with Roy to learn more about “Procurement for Empowerment: The Impact of Female Decision-Makers in Reproductive Health Supply Chains.”
Q: Why did you choose to research this area?
A: Contraceptive access remains very limited in LMICs. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, up to 35% of women who intend to delay or prevent pregnancies lack access to any contraceptives compared to only about 6% of women in North America and Europe. Resources in these countries are limited and reproductive health has not traditionally been a priority for national governments.
With respect to reproductive health, women and men also have different awareness levels and life experiences. For example, it is women who die during childbirth, it is women who bear the brunt of restrictive abortion policies, it is women who experience postpartum depression. We were curious to see whether such differences translated into women health ministers and parliamentarians being more committed advocates for reproductive health, in comparison to their counterparts who were men.
Having more women as health ministers and parliamentarians may be challenging, but the research offers takeaways that can help organizations to manage supply chains that are more inclusive of traditionally marginalized communities, resulting in better societal outcomes.
What are some of the countries that you analyzed?
We compiled data from six different sources to analyze the impact of women health ministers and parliamentarians on the procurement quantity of contraceptives. Our study sample includes 101 low- and middle-income countries spanning six continents over 16 years between 2000 and 2015. Some of these countries include Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ghana in Africa; Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica in Latin America; and Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Nepal in Asia.
What were your key findings?
In those countries we studied, the research found that a female (vs. male) health minister is associated with an average 66% increase in the procurement quantity of contraceptives. We also found that the increased representation of female parliamentarians together with a female health minister result in even higher increases in the country’s procurement quantity of contraceptives. That is, women leaders made a difference! And that too, substantively in terms of advancing the reproductive health agenda in their countries.