"When I was president, I decided to appoint female physicians as the head of the main institutions, the Ministry of Health, and the main provider of health services. And let me tell you, the situation started changing in terms of improving access to women's health services and also fighting against the problem of cancer."
H.E. Laura Chinchilla
"These disparities are not incidental, they're structural, and they reverberate throughout families, our communities, and our economies."
H.E. Toyin Ojora Saraki
"At Partners in Health, we really believe that all people should have access to high quality care. High, high levels of survivorship, and all that comes down to providing care where people live."
Sheila Davis
"Cancer in all its forms is devastating, but for women, the burden is often compounded by persistent gender bias and systemic inequalities that delay, diagnosis, and create barriers to quality treatment."
Mohit Manrao
Key Takeaways
Structural Inequities Are Preventable: Gender disparities in women’s cancer care persist due to systemic gaps rather than inevitable barriers. Women represent 70% of the global health workforce but hold only 25% of senior positions and just 5% of leadership roles.
Women’s Leadership Transforms Outcomes: Appointing women to senior health positions creates measurable improvements in women’s health services and cancer care access.
Systems Over Single Interventions: Sustainable cancer care requires comprehensive system building through the “five S’s” (staff, stuff, space, systems, social support) rather than isolated programs.
Political Will Is Critical: Without sustained political commitment, even the best frameworks cannot deliver results.
Evidence-Based Frameworks Enable Action: The Breast Cancer Care Quality Index provides measurable solutions across early detection, diagnosis, management, and resilient health systems.
Action Items
For Governments and Global Institutions: Implement national awareness campaigns to teach early cancer detection, strengthen primary care through mobile teams and clinics in rural areas, guarantee universal healthcare access, and integrate the Breast Cancer Care Quality Index (BCCQI) into national plans with targets such as detecting 60% of cancers at stages 1–2.
For Civil Society: Establish accountability systems to uphold care quality, educate women on their rights to quality care, document evidence-based care models to demonstrate need, and support long-term partnerships among governments, NGOs, industry, and communities.
