ICN advocates for health system gender equity and women’s health at UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69)
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) brought the nursing voice to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) which wrapped up on Friday. ICN participated in critical discussions on gender equity and women’s health throughout the event, which was held in New York, 10th–21st March. This critical UN summit marked the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a milestone global agenda for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
ICN's delegation to CSW69, led by ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano, supported by CEO Howard Catton and including UN Representative Holly Shaw, ICN’s Policy Analyst Dr Gill Adynski, and several delegates, advocated for investment in nursing in order to both strengthen equality and women’s leadership in the health care workforce and to improve women’s health outcomes worldwide.
ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano said:
“ICN welcomes the Political Declaration adopted at CSW69, which reaffirms global commitments to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. The Declaration's vision for achieving full gender equality, ensuring the human rights of all women and girls are respected, and empowering women economically and as leaders, resonates deeply with the mission of nursing and of ICN.
‘A strong nursing workforce advances women's opportunities for education, economic empowerment, and leadership, and ensures that women have access to high-quality health care, including child and maternal care.
‘It is now time to turn the Declaration’s commitments into action, and ICN calls on the world’s leaders to prioritize nursing and health care to accelerate progress on gender equality.”
ICN delivered a joint statement prior to CSW69 with the Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anaesthesia Care, addressing the intersecting crises of health impacts of gender-based violence and inequities within health care. The statement called for urgent action to protect both patients and healthcare workers from gender-based violence, to strengthen gender-responsive health systems, and to invest in nursing and enable nurses as health care leaders.
Speaking at a CSW69 side event in New York, Mr Catton emphasized the importance of valuing and enabling nurses for gender equity:
“There are 28 million nurses worldwide, 90% of whom are women. Women comprise about 70% of the global health and social care workforce but hold only 25% of leadership positions in health systems. It is no coincidence that the stalling of progress on addressing gender inequality and discrimination, as reported by the recent UN report on women’s rights 30 years after the Beijing Declaration, is mirrored in the nursing profession.
‘Our National Nurses’ Associations around the world have been reporting increasing pressure on nurses and health systems but a severe lack of investment to support them. This has only worsened with recent funding cuts, including the withdrawal of USAID funding. The bottom line is clear: we cannot make serious progress on gender equity without seriously investing in the nursing profession.”
ICN’s leaders represented the world’s nurses at several CSW69 events.
ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano contributed to a powerful documentary, American Delivery, that was screened at CSW69 on 10th March. The documentary examines the United States' maternal mortality crisis and highlights how systemic inequities, particularly affecting Black women, demonstrate the urgent need for equitable maternal healthcare funding and support.
On Thursday 20 March, Dr Cipriano participated in a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Taiwan Nurses Association, “Challenges for Nurses Representing Different Professional Spectrums in Power and Decision-making”. Dr Cipriano emphasized the connection of power and influence and the need for nurses to use their power as a force to influence decisions and change. She encouraged individual nurses to recognize and embrace their power saying, “it’s time nurses take control, own their power, be assertive, and recognize that challenges are merely opportunities to exert influence.”
Mr Catton delivered opening remarks at the TruMerit (formerly CGFNS) “Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Nurse Entrepreneurs Redefining Gender Equity” event on Monday 20 March, where a new initiative, The Global Nursing Workforce Centre (GNWC), a collaborative effort between TruMerit and ICN, was announced. The GNWC will act as a central repository for research, data, and policy solutions addressing global nursing workforce challenges.
Mr Catton also delivered an address at the University of Pennsylvania that focused on ICN’s 2025 Congress theme, “Nursing Power to Change the World”. Mr Catton discussed the upcoming State of the World’s Nursing (SOWN) report, the critical importance of nursing education in light of current global challenges, and the firsthand impact of the USAID cuts on nurses around the world, which ICN has reported on in detail. Mr Catton also heard how the new U.S. administration is creating huge uncertainty around federal funding for education, including university education for nursing students.
Mr Catton said, “By defunding research not only are nursing education and careers negatively impacted both now and, in the future, but the evidence pipeline is also cut. Policy which is not based on rigorous research and evidence is always a bad thing.”
As the world grapples with the immediate impacts of health funding cuts, chronic underinvestment in health, and persistent gender inequities and gender-based violence, ICN continues to advocate for urgent investment in nursing as the only way to meet our global health challenges and advance women’s health and gender equity alike.
Notes:
For further information on ICN's advocacy on gender equity and women's health, see the relevant position statements: