Celebrating Women in Global Health Research at UCPH

International Women's Day (March 8th) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women around the world.

To celebrate this day, we reached out to 6 women at the University of Copenhagen conducting research in global health. Read more to learn about their research in global health and advice they have for young women considering a career in global health.

Céline E J L Brassart Olsen

What is your current research about?

"I am currently working on a research project entitled "Conceptualizing a Human Right to Menstrual Health - Breaking Societal Taboos and Promoting Female Health", funded by Danmarks Frie Forskningsfond. The project fills a critical gap in women’s right to health by investigating how human rights can be leveraged to decrease menstrual stigma and create a more positive narrative around menstruality.

So far, menstruation has been narrowly framed as a hygienic issue that needs to be managed by giving access to hygienic products. However, this narrow approach fails to recognize menstruality as a whole, namely, the entire menstrual cycle (ovulation and menstruation from menarche to menopause), recognized as a vital sign. It also inadvertently reinforces the idea that menstruation is shameful and needs to be concealed or suppressed. Therefore, this project explores how human rights, in particular the rights to health, body literacy, and agency can go beyond the “menstrual hygiene management” approach, and serve as a foundation to conceptualize a right to menstrual health."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"It is difficult to give advice to young women specifically, because it is a very diverse group. It is true however, that some young women tend to underestimate themselves, which may result in some of them overlooking positions or programs, for which they are qualified. Therefore, my advice is to aim high, which requires growing more comfortable with taking risks and the possibility of failing.

Regarding global health specifically, a career in global health requires having empathy and being aware of the diversity of people within public health. It is important to remember that “populations” are not monolithic, but that they are made of diverse human beings, whose experiences, histories, and cultures vary greatly. Gaining practical experience in an organization is a good way to understand this better. Finally, I think young women (and men!) who are considering a career in global health should remember that they can be agents of change, and can influence the global health agenda, by focusing on neglected issues, such as women’s health."

Ana Antic

What is your current research about?

"I am currently leading an interdisciplinary Centre for Culture and the Mind, which combines medical humanities, anthropological and clinical psychiatric research to explore how cultural, historical and political?contexts have shaped ideas about the mind and mental pathologies. I am a historian of psychiatry and psy disciplines, and have published on the relationship between psychiatry and decolonisation, and psychiatry, politics and war/violence."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"It is very important to find the right intellectual?setting to thrive: supportive mentors and collaborators, a network of colleagues who are aware of a variety of structural obstacles that we encounter and who can help us to address them.

Beyond that, I think it's also important for researchers to choose a topic that you genuinely care about and that can get you through difficult and discouraging times - rather than choosing something that is popular right now."

Jacqueline Ntombizodwa Ndlovu

What is your current research about??

"In my PhD, I focus on scaling up an innovative mental health and psychosocial support intervention (Self Help Plus) among South Sudanese refugees and healthcare workers in Uganda. I am particularly interested in the added value of?scaling up through multi-sectoral?integration - where mental health services are integrated into other sectors outside of health."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"For young women considering a career in global health, I would say that beyond?education, skill development is just as important. Pursuing things like internships and supporting?research projects can be very helpful in developing skills,?gaining exposure and?practical experience in global health."

Natasha Housseine

What is your current research about?

"In low-resource settings, there is often a lack of effective translation of research and evidence into practice. As a member of the PartoMa Research team in Tanzania, my work involves collaborating with healthcare providers to co-create context-appropriate, evidence-based childbirth guidelines and filling gaps in evidence to enhance maternal and newborn health outcomes."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"To close the gap in global health disparities, particularly in maternal health, requires a collaborative approach involving stakeholders and innovative strategies, notably from diverse young minds. Effective solutions demand engaging those affected, advocating for local action while considering global perspectives."

Natacha Klein Kafer

What is your current research about?

"I am a researcher of the history of health and healing at the Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Privacy Studies at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Copenhagen. My current research focuses on the history of medical and pharmaceutical patents.

While keeping medicines as something people and companies can own and profit from appears as common sense to us today, this has not always been the case in the past. In historical terms, the legal protections over the ownership of medicines are quite recent. My research aims to look at the roots of our current framework from a global and long-term perspective in order to understand who could claim ownership of medical and pharmaceutical knowledge and how they went about it from the 1500s until today. This broader perspective can help us strike a balance between access to medicines and treatments, on the one hand, and credit over intellectual labour, on the other."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"Part of the beauty of researching history is that you rarely feel alone: we can feel how our personal experiences are built upon what many before us have gone through in the past. This sense of shared experience can shift what can feel like an obstacle into a transformative outlet.

My best advice is to find spaces to share your voice and uplift women in global health – you are not alone. Most organisations for women in global health aim not only to provide support to those women who have a career in global health but also to broaden our understanding of health and healing to encompass the experiences of women across the globe. Finding a community will help you transform personal struggles into collective solutions."

Sara dos Santos Almeida

What is your current research about?

"I am currently on the first year of my PhD. My project is part of WatScarce – a 5-year project studying the influence of water scarcity on pathogen transmission in low-income urban households of both climate-displaced migrants and established residents in Bangladesh. The aim of the project is to provide new insights into transmission routes for hygiene-related pathogens in low-income households and identify appropriate strategies for Climate Change adaptation. WatScarce will also implement and develop the “cholera phone”, a mobile phone-based method for epidemiological household surveillance and general research communication with the households.

My PhD work will focus on examining and comparing the longitudinal changes in disease patterns, medicine use, and health-seeking behavior in migrant and established residents of the households in the study area and also on developing and evaluating new methods for disease surveillance using mobile phones as investigation tools in low-income settings."

What advice would you give to young women who are considering a career in global health?

"As in other fields, global health is predominantly led by men, even though women make up the majority of the social care and global health workforce. So having more women working both in research and in management positions in the global health sector is crucial, as women also tend to have a unique perspective on many health issues such as maternal health, reproductive rights, and gender-based violence. Addressing this gender imbalance, can bring unique perspectives and experiences to the field and help address some of the most pressing health challenges facing the world today."