Role of women in the Healthcare Industry

 

Image Source

Women have dominated the market of health care consumers in the 21st century. Women are responsible for more than 80 per cent of purchasing and access decisions in the healthcare and medical sector which affect their health and those of their family members. Health care consumers are primarily focused on receiving timely and quality care for themselves and their dear ones. Improved health outcomes, quality of patient care and customer service directly impact client retention and patient referrals, thereby affecting the company’s/hospital's bottom line. Having more people in leadership attuned to clients’ needs, perspectives and experiences can translate into increased innovation and overall business opportunity. Health care companies should understand their workforce dynamics by maximizing their opportunities and increase women’s representation in senior leadership and management.


Whether it is the Covid or the pre-Covid time, women have always been leading the health response with 70% of the health care workforce being occupied by women. They have been serving on the frontlines against COVID-19. All these conditions expose them to a greater risk of infection.

Despite their dominance in the workforce, women are largely under-represented in the senior leadership ranks of the industry. Their participation in senior and executive leadership varies by country and region and is affected by whether they are working in the private or public sector. But this didn't demotivate them to fight against Covid.


In Congo, many women's cooperatives are helping the nation battle the pandemic. To encourage such women cooperatives the WHO Representation Office in the Congo partnered with the United Nations to make a donation in mask-making supplies to the Congo’s Ministry of Health as part of its promotion of health and the advancement of women’s work. The donation promotes and acknowledges the role women’s activities play in the fight against COVID-19.

In India also, almost all nurses are women, dealing with patients affected by Coronavirus. Not only nurses but Asha workers have also been working very hard in these covid times. One such example includes Sunita Rani, an accredited social health activist worker. Since March, Sunita has done 11 rounds of interviews among the 1,000 people under her care. She has walked up to five kilometers a day, telling people to stay home, documenting the elderly and the sick, monitoring for symptoms, checking on those who need medicine.“In the early days, there were no masks so I wrapped my face with my chunni,” she said.

When we think of front-line warriors, we tend to think of doctors and nurses, never about India’s grassroots health workers, the ones on the ground with links to their community, monitoring, checking, fighting a global enemy at great personal risk with little protection, less money and almost negligible acknowledgement.

Image Source

Although the health care sector is unique in that the global majority of workforce is comprised of women, the leadership positions are not proportional to this large worker base. Due to factors like occupational segregation and underlying conscious/ unconscious biases and power dynamics prevalent in the health care industry since long, women are more likely to be represented in roles that curb their career development and access to leadership or the power of decision-making. True that women are on the front lines of healthcare but on the flip side, several recurring issues surfaced regarding women’s opportunities to progress:

1. SOCIO-CULTURAL AND LEGAL BARRIERS and gendered norms, stereotypes regarding women’s occupational choices.

2. CONFLICT BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY LIFE women given the “maternal identity” and the caretaker of household affairs.

3. SEXUAL HARASSMENT which is unfortunately rampant in the health care industry. We need more transparency, accountability, trust and action to overcome it.

4. OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION

5. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND THE IMPOSTOR SYNDROME where an overwhelming 71 per cent of women respondents cited ‘underselling skills’ followed by lack of confidence as the barrier.

6. LACK OF NETWORKS AND FEMALE LEADERSHIP ROLE MODELS because of which women find themselves the only ones in the room regardless of their status in the company.



Given the complexity and interconnectedness of various barriers to advancement, the following recommendations are suggested to approach the issues holistically:

1. INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION

2. ANALYSE TALENT MANAGEMENT DATA, ESTABLISH TARGETS AND DEVELOP A STRATEGY

3. IMPLEMENT EFFECTIVE POLICIES AND ADDRESS SEXUAL HARASSMENT

4. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, MENTORSHIP PROGRAMS AND NETWORKS

5. NOMINATE WOMEN TO COMPANY AND INDUSTRY BOARDS

6. ENSURE WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION

7. SUPPORT WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

-by

Shreyasi Saha Roy,

Mrigakshi

Members, WiB