Gender-based discrimination in healthcare

Across low and middle-income countries (LMICs) there are “missing women”, meaning that there are fewer women alive today than there demographically should be. Adult women in LMICs die earlier than their male counterparts and there currently is no consensus on whether this is due to biological factors or gender-based discrimination.

Determining why women die prematurely is key for achieving sustainable development and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. We use an experimental design to examine whether women face gender-based discrimination when seeking healthcare in Kenya and provide first evidence on the impact of an intervention to combat discrimination in this setting.