Gro Harlem Brundtland

In 1965, when she was 25 years old, Brundtland enjoyed what she described as a major experience in her life by attending HSPH to pursue an MPH degree. The newly qualified Norwegian doctor connected with people from all over the world, gained a global perspective on health, and established a life-long interest in the well-being of women and children. Brundtland went on to become Norway’s Prime Minister in 1981 and WHO’s Director-General in 1998. She resigned as Director-General last year.

"The interaction of gender and poverty constitutes the greatest limiting factor to human development," said Brundtland at the talk. As elucidated in the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration, gender equality is not only a "goal, but a right," as well as a means and a measure of progress. Providing women with greater control over their lives—opportunities for education and employment, as well as choices about marriage and reproduction—tends to benefit families and communities, as well as the women themselves, said Brundtland.

She surveyed the global status of women, noting areas of progress, as well as those where work still needs to be done. Among the globe’s 900 million illiterate people, the majority are women, she said. "In many parts of the world, traditional attitudes make it more likely that girls, rather than boys, will be kept out of school to help with domestic work and care for dependents," said Brundtland.

The "persistent and pernicious" practice of child and adolescent marriages also has a negative impact on women’s education and advancement, she said. Today, 82 million girls now aged 10 to 17 years in developing countries will be married before they are 18 years old, said Brundtland. Most of these child brides, as a result, will cease their schooling, limit their earning power, and lose some measure of control over their reproductive health. She noted, "Cultural and social factors dominate all others in affecting fertility. Fertility falls as access to education and employment–and age of marriage of women–rise."

Brundtland stated that maternal mortality rates "most starkly illustrate disparities in the world. Giving birth is a perilous undertaking for far too many women. In some African countries, one woman in every 16 will die because she does not receive the care she needs when pregnant, during birth, or in the first few weeks after birth."

Despite such sobering observations, the tone of Brundtland’s talk was essentially optimistic, as she stated her strongly held belief that, "change will come if you work for it." She gave examples from her own public life. As a government health officer, she worked to increase Norway’s breastfeeding rate, and now Norway has the highest rate in the world. She and others worked successfully to increase pregnancy leave in the country from 12 weeks to one year, to increase public funding of child care facilities, and to liberalize the country’s abortion laws.

As chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development in the 1980s, Brundtland convened a diverse panel of commission members who produced a well-known report, "Our Common Future," which promoted the concept of sustainable development.

She has helped broker groundbreaking global health treaties, such as last year’s WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that was adopted by the World Health Assembly. The treaty seeks to reduce worldwide tobacco-related illness and death by supporting efforts to restrict the promotion of tobacco, regulate labeling, and deter tobacco smuggling.

Globalization, said Brundtland, can be a force for good or ill in the lives of the world’s poorest people.

"We need a shift in awareness toward the idea of building global public goods to reap the huge potential benefits of globalization," she said. While it is incumbent upon wealthy nations to recognize their global citizenship and obligations, it is also true that "the poor must increase their own investment in health. Poor countries must invest in their own people," she said.

Brundtland stressed the role of ordinary citizens in working for social justice and improving global health. She said, "The main question is one of taking responsibility. Remember: more and more countries are democracies at this time. We are all responsible. We all are part of our own country and society. We are all also global citizens. We need to be participating. We need to be taking a stand. We need to vote. We need to be active in some field or other, doing something that can make a difference."

The Fae Golden Kass Lectureship is an annual lecture by a woman in the medical sciences. The event was co-sponsored by HSPH, HMS/HSDM Joint Committee on the Status of Women; HSPH Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health; the Center for Faculty Development at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Children’s Hospital Office of Faculty Development; Partners Offices for Women’s Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital; HMS Center of Excellence in Women’s Health; and the HMS Office for Faculty Affairs.

-- Carisa Cunningham