What Women Deliver reaffirmed to me about eye health and gender equality

When I arrived in Melbourne for Women Deliver 2026, I expected conversations about gender equity, leadership, and global health. What surprised me was how often those conversations circled back to issues deeply connected to vision, even when eye health itself wasn’t being explicitly discussed.

Across sessions and side conversations alike, the same pattern kept emerging: gender equality challenges rarely exist in isolation. Education, economic opportunity, leadership, health systems — they’re all deeply linked. And again and again, I was reminded that eye health is part of that picture, even when it isn’t always named.

One of the most striking statistics we shared during the week is that 112 million more women than men live with vision loss. That gap isn’t just about eyesight. It affects whether women can stay in school, earn an income, access health services, or step into leadership roles.

At Women Deliver, those realities felt especially tangible. Whether the conversation was about sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian response, or political participation, the same barriers kept surfacing — limited access to care, under resourced systems, and the disproportionate burden placed on women and girls.

Eye health fits directly into those challenges. If women can’t see clearly, it affects far more than eyesight. It shapes their ability to learn, work, care for others, and participate fully in their communities. And if women aren’t supported as eye health professionals and leaders, health systems are less likely to reflect the needs and realities of the communities they serve.

A highlight of the week was seeing Orbis’s approach to gender‑transformative eye health resonate with so many partners and peers. In sessions and conversations, we talked about shifting away from seeing women only as patients and toward supporting them as leaders who shape eye health systems in their own communities.

That came through strongly during our joint session with partners including Seva, the Fred Hollows Foundation, Sightsavers, and IAPB, where Orbis President and CEO Kathleen Sherwin spoke about the importance of women’s leadership in eye health. She shared how gender‑disaggregated data, long‑term advocacy with Ministries of Health, and women‑led models of care can change not just outcomes, but systems.

Those ideas landed because they were practical. They weren’t abstract commitments — they reflected work already happening across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and the women leading it.

Some of the most meaningful moments didn’t happen on stage. They happened at the Orbis booth, during coffee chats, and in small group discussions with partners from around the world.

At our booth, we hosted conversations on Women Leaders in Eye Health, shared examples from different regions, and invited people to reflect on what leadership really looks like in their own contexts. We heard from eye health professionals navigating barriers in their careers, from partners thinking about how to embed equity into training programs, and from advocates looking for ways to better connect eye health with broader gender agendas.

Across the week, we also connected with organizations working in sexual and reproductive health, humanitarian response, and development finance. Those conversations reinforced something important: when eye health is included early in policy and planning, it strengthens everything else that follows.

As the conference closed, there was a strong sense of momentum. The launch of the Melbourne Declaration captured a shared commitment to advancing gender equality, shaped by voices from across regions and movements.

For me, Women Deliver was a reminder that eye health isn’t a niche issue. It’s foundational. If we’re serious about gender equality, we have to talk about who can access care, who delivers it, and who leads health systems in the long term.

I left Melbourne convinced that eye health has a far more important role to play in gender-equal development than many global conversations currently acknowledge, and encouraged by how many partners are ready to push that conversation forward.