While significant progress has been made in improving the wellbeing of women and girls around the world, a gender gap still exists between men and women which is very evident in Ghana. Gender inequalities continue to persist in Ghana because of cultural gender norms that exalt and favor men and put women in subordinate and subservient roles. These cultural gender norms hinder women\'s development and widen gender inequality between men and women in different system levels of society. Therefore, there is a need to examine the influence of these cultural gender norms on women\'s lives using a systems framework to capture a full picture of women\'s experiences at these systemic levels of society. In this paper, we use Bronfenbrenner\'s ecological systems multilevel approach to examine the impact of these cultural gender norms on women\'s lives at the different system levels. We conducted a desk review of studies published in sub-Saharan Africa focused on cultural gender norms and gender inequality. The findings showed that the impact of cultural gender norms on gender inequality at the levels of the four social systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem) are interconnected, creating and widening the inequality gap between men and women. Cultural gender norms influence gender role socialization in the home, which then transmits to the school and religious institutions as the mesosystem. At the school level, cultural gender norms act as a mesosystem manifest through discriminatory classroom practices, gender role assignment of school responsibilities, and gender role representations in textbooks. In Christianity and Islam, cultural gender norms create doctrines that enforce men\'s domination over women, and, in the workplace, cultural gender norms have gendered labor by defining a man\'s occupation and limiting women to domestic and low-paying occupations. The mass media is the exosystem that displays images of women to fit cultural gender norms of what is defined as acceptable for women. Finally, the macrosystem is the overall sociocultural norms that have been accepted by society that perpetuate discriminatory practices against women.

This article explores the persistent and deeply troubling issue of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) throughout history and in contemporary conflicts. It examines the roots of wartime sexual violence in wartime, the evolving international legal framework for the protection of civilians, and the emergence of concerns about the protection of women and girls from such violence. The article delves into controversial aspects, including competing theories to explain CRSV, the challenges in obtaining accurate data on its prevalence, and the often-overlooked issue of CRSV against men and boys. It also addresses the cultural and societal factors that perpetuate CRSV and the long-lasting consequences on survivors. The article concludes by underscoring the importance of comprehensive care for survivors and the need to tackle the deep-seated causes of this violence, including gender inequality.

Gender inequalities in academic medicine persist despite progress over the past decade. Evidence-based targeted interventions are needed to reduce gender inequalities.
This systematic review aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on gender trends in authorship of paediatric radiology research worldwide.
This prospectively registered, PRISMA-compliant systematic review searched the following databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus from January 1, 2018, to May 29, 2023, with no restrictions on country of origin. Screening and data extraction occurred independently and in duplicate. Gender of first, last, and corresponding authors were determined using an artificial intelligence-powered, validated, multinational database ( www.genderize.io ). Two time periods were categorised according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering: pre-COVID (prior to March 2020) and peak and post-COVID (March 2020 onwards). One-sample binomial testing was used to analyse proportion of authorship based on gender. Categorical variables were described as frequencies and percentages, and compared using testing chi-square or Fisher exact testing, with a threshold of P<0.05 representing statistical significance.
In total, 922 articles were included with 39 countries represented. A statistically significant difference in authorship based on gender persisted during the peak and post-COVID time period (March 2020 onwards) where women represented a statistically significant lower proportion of last (35.5%) and corresponding (42.7%) authors (P<0.001, P=0.001, respectively). Statistically significant differences for first authors were not found in either period (P=0.08 and P=0.48).
This study identifies differences in gender trends for authorship in paediatric radiology research worldwide. Future efforts to increase authorship by women are needed.

As COVID-19 continues to impact lives and livelihoods around the world, women and girls are disproportionately affected. Crisis situations and related response measures, such as lockdowns, school closures, and travel restrictions, often exacerbate the adversities and human rights violations faced by adolescent girls. We conducted a rapid review to synthesise evidence on the impact of public health emergencies (PHEs) related to gender-based inequalities among adolescent girls.
We systematically searched five major databases. Records were imported into the online screening tool Rayyan, and 10% of the records were triple screened for eligibility. We included qualitative, mixed-methods, and quantitative studies that assessed the relationship between PHEs and any of the following outcomes: (1) gender-based violence, (2) early/forced marriage, and (3) sexual and reproductive health. Due to the heterogeneity of included study designs, no meta-analysis was performed, and studies were summarised narratively.
Out the initial 6004 articles, 11 studies met our eligibility criteria. Five of these assessed the impact of natural disasters and six were focused on consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seven studies focused on the impact of PHEs on gender-based violence, three focused on sexual and reproductive health, and only one study looked at early marriage. The main impacts highlighted by the studies included (1) increases in physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, (2) increase in the occurrence of teenage pregnancy, (3) poor menstruation hygiene management, and (4) occurrence of early marriages. Mechanisms underlying these impacts were PHE-specific response strategies like home confinement, closure of schools, the worsening of families\' financial situation such as the inability to pay for school fees or day-to-day living costs, and the disempowerment of and increased workloads for adolescent girls.
Although evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, and especially forced or early marriage of adolescent girls is limited, results from studies on other PHEs indicate that during crises, these detrimental outcomes are exacerbated. Findings from our review have important implications for policies and programs providing life skills training, financial literacy training, credit support, and safe spaces for adolescent girls.

Family policies to reduce conflict in work-life balance and promote gender equality advanced significantly at the legislative level in Spain in the first decades of the twenty-first century. These advances include the 2007 Law for Equality between Men and Women and the extension of paternity leave to 16 weeks in 2020. However, advances in care work and at the professional level have been limited. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified existing imbalances in family-work responsibilities in general and the ICT gender gap in particular. In crisis situations, women adopt the role of caregivers more easily than men, and women with fewer educational, economic, and job resources are more likely to assume this role, contributing to increasing gender inequalities at work and in the family. COVID-19 has exposed these imbalances, highlighting the need for new narratives and laws that encourage gender equality. Post-COVID-19 scenarios thus present an opportunity for reflection and progress on Spanish family policy. From this perspective, the paradigm of work-family conflict, although interesting, must be examined and resignified. This article proposes to critically resignify the paradigm of work-family conflict based on the new narrative generated by COVID-19. The present analysis suggests a resignification that should involve changing the expectations and practices around work-family balance, based on family diversity, job insecurity, the technological revolution, and new masculinities. It is proposed a prior reflection to clarify definition of the indicators and indexes that enable operationalization of the concept of work-family reconciliation. It is expected that these measures will help to facilitate practical application of reconciliation in areas such as public or/and private organizations, while also enabling international comparative analysis.

Considering that radiology is still a male-dominated specialty in which men make up more than two thirds of the workforce, this systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the current role of women in radiological imaging, focusing on the main aspects such as career progression, leadership, academic practice, and perceived discrimination. Three electronic databases were searched up to 21 October 2020. To identify additional records, weekly automatic email alerts were set up on PubMed until December 2020 and reference lists of key studies and included papers were screened. Two reviewers independently performed the search, study selection, quality appraisal, data extraction, and formal narrative synthesis. In case of disagreement, a third reviewer was involved. Across the 61 included articles, women worked more often part-time and held fewer positions of power in hospitals, on editorial boards, and at the academic level (associate and full professors). Women were less often in relevant positions in scientific articles, had fewer publications, and had a lower H-index. Discrimination and sexual harassment were experienced by up to 40% and 47% of female radiologists, respectively. Our study highlights that women in radiology are still underrepresented and play a marginal role in the field, struggling to reach top and leading positions.

The growing literature on gender inequality in academia attests to the challenge that awaits female researchers during their academic careers. However, research has not yet conclusively resolved whether these biases persist during the peer review process of research grant funding and whether they impact respective funding decisions. Whereas many have argued for the existence of gender inequality in grant peer reviews and outcomes, others have demonstrated that gender equality is upheld during these processes. In the present paper, we illustrate how these opinions have come to such opposing conclusions and consider methodological and contextual factors that render these findings inconclusive. More specifically, we argue that a more comprehensive approach is needed to further the debate, encompassing individual and systemic biases as well as more global social barriers. We also argue that examining gender biases during the peer review process of research grant funding poses critical methodological challenges that deserve special attention. We conclude by providing directions for possible future research and more general considerations that may improve grant funding opportunities and career paths for female researchers.

Gender-based violence can include, but is not limited to, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, rape, and intimate partner homicide. It is well-established that gender inequality is the main driver of gender-based violence. However, little work has attempted to unpack how gender-based violence perpetuates within the neighbourhood context, and whether \'liveability\' attributes might intersect with gender inequality and violence. We systematically reviewed quantitative evidence examining associations between gender-based violence and several liveability neighbourhood-level factors. MEDLINE (Ovid) and Scopus databases yielded 1822 potentially relevant articles. 50 articles met inclusion criteria. Neighbourhood social capital was most consistently associated with reduced gender-based violence. Few studies examined built environment attributes (e.g. gambling venue densities, access to services). Future research is needed to more deeply examine how combinations of salutogenic or pathogenic neighbourhood attributes may reinforce or prevent violence.

Gender inequality within academic medicine and dentistry is a well-recognised issue, but one which is not completely understood in terms of its causes, or interventions to facilitate equality. This systematic review aims to identify, critically appraise, and synthesise the literature on facilitators and barriers to progression through a clinical academic career across medicine and dentistry. It will also explore interventions developed to increase recruitment and retention to clinical academic careers, with a particular focus on gender inequality.
The search will cover five databases (MEDLINE (including MEDLINE Epub Ahead of Print, MEDLINE In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, and MEDLINE Daily), Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials (CENTRAL), PsycINFO, and Education Resource Information Center (ERIC)), reference lists, and forward citation searching. We will include studies of doctors, dentists, and/or those with a supervisory role over their careers, with or without an academic career. Outcomes will be study defined, but relate to success rates of joining or continuing within a clinical academic career, including but not limited to success in gaining funding support, proportion of time spent in academic work, and numbers of awards/higher education qualifications, as well as experiences of professionals within the clinical academic pathway. Study quality will be assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised controlled trials, the Newcastle-Ottawa tool for non-randomised studies, and the QARI tool for qualitative studies. Detailed plans for screening, data extraction, and analysis are provided within this protocol.
This systematic review is situated within a larger project evaluating gender inequalities in clinical academic careers. This review will identify and synthetize barriers, facilitators, and interventions addressing gender inequalities in clinical academia. Our findings will increase awareness of inequalities in clinical academic careers through informing clinical academics, regulators and funders of the issues involved, and potential interventions to counteract these. Results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/mfy7a.

Objective To identify organizational barriers to and facilitators for female surgeons\' career progression. Design Systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies relating to organizational barriers to and facilitators for female Surgeons\' career progression. After the quality assessment of the peer-reviewed journal articles, twelve articles were selected for full review. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes in these selected articles. Setting The studies solely focused on organizational factors linked to female physicians\' career progression in surgical specialties. Partcipants Female surgeons. Main outcome measures Organizational barriers and facilitators Results Twelve peer-reviewed journal articles were included in the study which focused on barriers to female surgeons\' career progression, ways of facilitating female surgeons\' career progression, and female surgeons\' job satisfaction. Conclusion The major organisational factors contributing to the lack of career progression for female surgeons are (1) organizational culture which promotes rigid career structure that is inclined to support male surgeons than female surgeons and also male domination in which male surgeons feel superior to female surgeons (2) work family conflict whereby women feel that they have to make a family sacrifice by being women; they experience the difficulty in securing a work-life balance in the masculine career structure in surgical specialties. This implies that policy makers and healthcare organizations need to pay significant attention to organizational facilitators for female surgeons\' career progression such as flexible career pathways and work patterns, a variety of different viable career progressions, more family-friendly working conditions, and the promotion of female mentors and role models in surgical specialties to support female surgeons in dealing with the organizational barriers in the male-dominated organizational culture and the lifestyle issues as well.