Of Money and Men: A Scoping Review to Map Gender Barriers to Immunization Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (2024)

This article reviewed 92 studies across 43 countries in Africa and South Asia to answer a question that had not been systematically studied before: how do gender barriers specifically block kids from getting vaccinated in lower-income countries? The answer is that mothers, most of whom do the work of getting children vaccinated, often lack the authority to decide on their own, the free time to make the trip, or the money to cover costs without a husband's or relative's approval, and clinics themselves aren't always set up to accommodate these realities. The article makes a compelling, evidence-backed case that immunization programming won't close coverage gaps unless they address these gender dynamics directly, and is a must read for anyone working in global health, public health policy, or international development who wants to understand a root cause of vaccine inequity that's usually overlooked in favor of simpler explanations like poverty or distance to clinics alone.