Gender biases keep healthcare inequalities festering

Women play a massive role in the healthcare workforce globally. They serve as doctors, midwives, nurses and community health workers.

Despite this, women are subjected to gender discrimination that denies them equal opportunities as their male counterparts.

A recently released report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that female health and social care workers who deliver the majority of care in all settings face barriers at work unlike their male colleagues.

Findings suggests that gender-based obstacles such as occupational segregation, sexual harassment present problems especially for female healthcare workers.

The WHO says that women make up 70 percent of the global health workforce but occupy only 25 percent of leadership roles. Men hold the majority of leadership roles at all levels, from global to community.

The circumstances are no different in Kenya where despite having equal numbers men and women graduates from medical or nursing schools, only a small fraction of female healthcare workers become medical leaders.

The closer women get to the top, the less diversity exists. Often when women get to a position that reports to the CEO, it is usually as a technical expert, such as a chief human resource officer, chief legal officer or chief information officer.

“A gender analysis of Kenya’s health training institutions found that women made up 76 percent of the nursing profession, but men held 62 percent of the faculty positions,” states the WHO report.

Data from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB) shows that of the current retained 7,475 doctors, 4,437 are men while 3,138 are women. Of the total 2,284 specialists only 696 are women.

Often, gender norms and job stereotypes can affect the roles that women play with a report titled Human Resources for Health showing that occupations such as nursing, nutrition, community health work (CHW), and community health extension work (CHEW) are perceived as ‘female jobs’ whereas pharmacy appears to be a ‘male job’.

The stereotyping is a significant contributor to the gender pay gap.

Since there is a pay gap between general practitioners and specialists in the medical field this shows that more men make money than women in the medical fraternity.

The WHO says that gender pay gap is also a major obstacle for female health workers in the country where subtle unconscious biases in hiring and promotion processes have implications for women’s careers and advancements that impact their earning potential.

Since unions play a key role in pay grades given that collective bargaining has been shown to be effective in negotiating comparable salaries, the WHO states that when men participate in unions and women are not union members, then even the same hourly wages may lead to pay differentials.

Data from the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) shows that while 55 percent of Kenyan doctors under the age of 40 years are women more men (at 63 percent) are in practice.

The WHO report shows that female health and social care workers who deliver the majority of services in all settings also face gender-based barriers.

This not only undermines their well-being and livelihoods, it also constrains progress on gender equality and negatively impacts health systems and the delivery of quality care.

The report shows that in Kenya, threats of violence or harassment do not only come from sources within the health system.

“For example, community health workers in Kenya experienced threats of violence by husbands when providing HIV testing to wives. Cases of rape were also reported, leading to calls for security services to accompany community health workers,” the report reveals.

Another setback for women in healthcare is the unequal access of girls to education in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly to secondary schooling, which has limited their access to training for formal health sector jobs, the WHO reveals.

Data on Kenya’s gender pay gap shows that only 28,072 women earn more than Sh100,000 a month. In comparison, men in the same income bracket are more than double that number at 48,733.