Letters | How correcting the gender imbalance in eye health care helps both women and the economy

Women account for 55 per cent of the world’s blind, when four out of five people who are blind don’t need to be

Improving women’s access to eye health care transforms not just individual lives, but also families and economies

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A blind Palestinian refugee rests on a beach on the Greek island of Kos. Women account for 55 per cent of the world’s blind, and 90 per cent of blind women live in poverty. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:44am, 6 Mar 2019Updated: 6:44am, 6 Mar 2019

Despite technological advances in eye health care, not everyone is getting the same kind of medical help. Women in remote areas in the world, in particular, are discriminated against in terms of access to quality eye health care.

Women are 1.3 times more likely to be blind or vision-impaired than men. Women account for 55 per cent of the world’s blind, and 90 per cent of blind women live in poverty. In raw numbers, 20 million women in the world are blind and a further 120 million are vision-impaired.

The reasons behind this imbalance are varied, including poverty, cultural norms, discrimination and barriers to accessing health services.

The fact is, four out of five people who are blind actually don’t need to be. This is an injustice.

International eye health organisations such as The Fred Hollows Foundation are focusing efforts on correcting the gender imbalance and improving eye health for women around the world.

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | How correcting the gender imbalance in eye health care helps both women and the economy

Letters | How correcting the gender imbalance in eye health care helps both women and the economy