Women aren’t being promoted in healthcare

Women do 90% of the work in global healthcare but hold only a quarter of leadership roles. We hear from an American doctor who says patients are missing out on the unique perspective of women because they aren’t involved in strategic decision-making. Margaret in Nairobi has set up a WhatsApp group to help to improve the rights of community healthcare workers and Indian doctor Snigdha explains how equality can only happen if childcare and access to education for women are improved. Pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes appear to make newborn babies “biologically younger” than those born to women who have healthy pregnancies. Researchers studied data from 1800 babies from 12 different parts of the United States and found that their so-called epigenetic age was reduced by around a week if their mothers had the conditions. As students across the world ask the popular artificial intelligence programme Chat GPT to write their essays, Professor Graham Easton assesses how much impact it could have on healthcare, from breast cancer screening to medical record keeping. Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Paula McGrath Image Credit: Getty Images/ SDI Productions