Critique of Canada’s National Women's Health Strategy

Abstract

In 1996, Canada recognized the need for addressing the inequalities and barriers women experience when accessing healthcare. Thus, they created the National Women's Health Strategy (NWHS) to address the inequities that disproportionately burdened women, whether that consisted of access or disparities in research. In this paper, I critique the NWHS to see whether it has made substantial progress since its implementation. Looking at the strengths and weaknesses, I find that the policy has strong goals but lacks clear metrics that would allow us to see the actual progress and shortcomings of the policy. The analysis indicates the government's lack of focus on intervening to effectively address the needs of women highlighting how important it is to bring systemic changes to see the strategy working.