Chapter 14 in the text book, leadership in nursing practice: changing the landscape of healthcare, discusses the nursing profession's lack of representation in health care policymaking, even though nurses currently represent the largest profession within the healthcare industry. The test suggests that this maybe related to gender inequality, with women making up a large percentage of the nursing profession. Do you see any correlation to this argument?

The nursing profession and health care in general are highly influenced by the health policies. The involvement of nurses in developing health policies guarantees that health care is safe, accessible, of a high quality, and affordable. The nurses leaders' capacity to be active in politics and health policy-making is influenced by numerous factors, which can be either facilitators or barriers to their participation. With that being said in the chapter 14 of the textbook, it is obvious that gender discrimination and inequality is just one of the few important factors that impede nurses' participation in the policy-making for health. Even though that the nurses constitute and represent the largest health care workforce in most countries, the profession's low proportion of policy-making participation is still a problem that needs to be addressed.

On a global survey conducted in 2019 by the IntraHealth International, Nursing Now and Johnson & Johnson, it showed that gender bias, discrimination, and stereotyping hamper the opportunities for female nurses in developing their skills, perpetuating the gender pay gap, thus resulting to unequal treatment in the health workforce. According to their report, even if women represent the 70% of total health and social care workforce, only 25% of these women comprise the health system leadership roles. The report also stated that perceiving the profession of nursing as a "feminine and nurturing profession" and the devaluation of work associated with women were cited as one of the crucial barriers to women's advancement in the profession. In addition to this, lack of self-confidence was also considered a barrier in assuming leadership positions among nurses.

In conclusion, gender discrimination and inequality contribute to the low proportion of nurses' representation in the health policy development. This is also due to the misconceptions regarding the nursing profession in general, tagged wrongly as feminine without even realizing the exceeding potentials this profession can do, regardless of gender. Improving gender imbalance is essential to strengthen heath care workforce's representation in health policy development.