Interview with Geeta Rao Gupta
Geeta Rao Gupta, PhD is currently a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women. She is the Chair of the WomenLift Health Global Advisory Board. She is also a member of the WHO Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for health emergencies, serves on the Board of Merck for Mothers and in 2019 was lead author for the Lancet Series on Gender Equality, Norms and Health. In 2017 she was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and served as co-Chair of the Gender-Based Violence Task Force of the World Bank. From 2011 to 2016, Ms. Rao Gupta served as Deputy Executive Director at UNICEF and from 2010 to 2011 was a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Prior to that, for over a decade, Ms. Rao Gupta was the president of the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to using research to shape international development policies and programs to empower women and girls. Under her leadership, ICRW catalyzed policy and programmatic change for women and children around the globe. Over the course of her career, Ms. Rao Gupta has served on several boards, such as the Global Partnership for Education, GAVI, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and the MAC AIDS Fund. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Harvard University’s 2006 Anne Roe Award and the 2007 Washington Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business” Award. Ms. Rao Gupta earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Bangalore University and an M.Phil. and M.A. from the University of Delhi in India.
2020 is shaping-up to be an exciting year for gender equality. What are you hoping to see this year?
2020 is looking to be the year that commitments become reality and rhetoric becomes action. I believe the discussion is also shifting to women getting equal opportunities because it’s their right, and not just because of long arguments of why it’s good for the economy and society. Frankly, gender discrimination has been unfair for too long, and yes, the world suffers because of it, but women suffer the most and the time has come to fix it.
I strongly believe that change will come through organizing groups of women — through platforms, convenings, and networks that intersect with each other, that help women articulate their demands, and mobilize real change. This is not just at senior levels but across all levels and in whatever field women are in, for example, health.
What are your hopes and fears for the Generation Equality Forums this spring and summer?
These meetings are an opportunity for governments, organizations and individual leaders to not only renew their commitments to gender equality but, more importantly, ensure these commitments are actionable and result in change.
You are the Chair of the WomenLift Health Global Advisory Board. Why is WomenLift Health, an initiative focusing on women’s leadership in one specific sector—global health—important?
Focusing on a specific sector allows us to show results and to learn and inform women’s leadership initiatives in other sectors. The inequalities in global health are also so stark, with women comprising 70% of the workforce, and yet only 25% of them are in senior leadership positions and 5% in CEO-level positions. Clearly, the talent, trained personnel and pipeline all exist—so what is blocking the advancement of women to leadership? Is it specific skills, institutional policies, cultural norms? Focusing on health is a good thing to do at this moment in time because this is where the inequities are most stark.
Why is it important to have women advancing to leadership positions in health?
Women’s leadership in health is important for several reasons.
First, I don’t believe women innately make better decisions then men; women are human and make good and bad decisions just like men. However, a greater diversity of perspectives is better. Women and men live very different lives and have very different experiences. These experiences inform their decisions, so more diverse leadership results in better informed decision-making.
Second, in many countries the inequality in access to good health is partially due to gender related barriers. , So, of course women who have experienced these barriers bring new understanding and ideas to the address these challenges. And, women comprise the bulk of the health workforce and suffer a disproportionate burden of ill-health, so shouldn’t they be represented in leadership positions that make decisions about them?
Third, is representational – if children see women and men in leadership positions in any field it shifts their own expectations. Women leaders are role models, and when children see a world with a balance of women and men leaders, this has the potential to create a normative shift.
What makes WomenLift Health special?
I like the WomenLift Health model and design because it’s about DOING not just ADVOCATING. We’ve advocated for many years and not seen much change. WomenLift Health is taking action. It provides mid-level women leaders with the opportunity to learn, network, be mentored, be coached and take on leadership projects to support their advancement to leadership positions. It’s also providing institutions with the necessary know-how to make change and engaging the leaders of institutions to own and drive their own change.
As the Chair of the WomenLift Health Global Advisor Board – tell us about the Board?
I’m really excited to be chair of this Global Advisory Board. It brings together women from many different walks of life who are all strong champions of women’s leadership and who have themselves walked a path to leadership. They know the challenges and have the insight and the passion to find ways to overcome them. It also includes men who have championed women’s leadership and nurtured and mentored women leaders. Their perspective is also very valuable.
What do you expect from the Board? What is success?
This Board will be successful if the members become a cohesive whole with a common vision of where to take WomenLift Health. Given the vast expertise and experience of the Board members, this Board can give valuable input into the design of components of the program and provide strategic direction and advice to the Executive Director and her team. I also hope each Board member will act in their individual capacity as ambassadors for WomenLift Health and women’s leadership in global health – both in their own organizations and globally.
Why are you so passionate about women’s leadership and WomenLift Health?
Personally, this opportunity is so exciting to me because I saw how a leadership training opportunity empowered my mother, and through her transformed her family – including me. Years ago, my mother received a Ford Foundation fellowship in public health that brought her to Berkley University at the age of 40. She was an MD but through this 13-month program received a public health degree and gained policy experience at the Department of Health and Human Services during the summer. The training and the confidence she built through that year, transformed her – personally and professionally. She came back to India and made a mark on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India. And she made a mark on her family, broadening our world- view with the information, music, culture and perspectives that she brought into our home. That one opportunity shaped her life and that of my siblings – my brother, my sister and me. Thanks to her, each of us, her children, are now working in some way in this field. I have a great belief in the value of investing in women leaders and personal experience with the impact it had on my mother and across future generations.
