Promoting gender equity in family medicine.

With their endorsement of the Hamilton Equity Recommendations1 (the HER Statement), the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) and the Ontario College of Family Physicians have joined with their international colleagues in making a commitment to gender* equity. The HER Statement, which was developed at a unique meeting of the Wonca Working Party on Women and Family Medicine (WWPWFM) attended by 25 women family physicians from 16 countries and all 6 Wonca regions, emphasizes the critical importance of the empowerment of women and provides a framework for how to bring about sustainable gender equity within family medicine. At the same meeting, the group also developed an accompanying statement, 10 Steps to Gender Equity in Health (Table 12), which underscores the significance of gender as a key determinant of health.