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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jun/05/women-backbone-healthcare-3tn-contribution
Women Are the Backbone of Healthcare for Few Rewards, Benefits
Lancet Study – Abstract: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60497-4/abstract
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Women worldwide
routinely perform key health roles with too few resources and little recognition
– and put in many more hours than men, says report.
Heavy burden … a woman at the fishing port of Conakry, Guinea. A new study finds women’s contribution to healthcare and wellbeing of families and communities is undervalued worldwide. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP
June 5, 2015 - Women
contribute around $3tn to global healthcare but nearly half of it is unpaid and
unrecognised, according to a new study.
The report, published in the Lancet, found that women’s
involvement in healthcare is undervalued economically, socially, politically
and culturally.
Researchers
attempted to estimate the financial value of women’s contribution to health
systems in 2010 by analysing data from 32 countries, accounting for 52% of the
world’s population.
They estimated the
value of women’s paid work was 2.47% of global gross domestic product (GDP),
while the value of their unpaid work was 2.35% of GDP. The total is equivalent
to $3tn.
In
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, local women’s groups have played a vital role
in tackling Ebola and will be on the frontline long after outside help has
moved on
The unpaid work is
largely domestic care for family members, which is only officially acknowledged
and compensated in a small number of countries, such as the UK, Turkey and
Costa Rica.
In April, a report by UN Women found that on average women
do almost two-and-a-half times more unpaid care and household work as men.
Combining paid and unpaid work, researchers calculated that women in almost all
countries work longer hours each day than men.
Professor Ana
Langer, from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
in Boston, who co-led the commission on women and health that carried out the new
study, said: “Worldwide, most providers of healthcare are women. But the health
systems to which they contribute so much are often completely unresponsive to
their needs, despite the fact that they rely heavily on their paid and unpaid
contributions.
“Women are
undervalued and unsupported by the systems in which they work, and this problem
is exacerbated by inequitable access to healthcare experienced by too many
women worldwide – particularly those in the most vulnerable groups.”
Flagship
report claims poor policies and discriminatory attitudes are failing women
worldwide and calls for rethink of global economic policy
Read
more
The work is one of
the most exhaustive studies on the relationship between women and healthcare,
and involved heads of health programmes as well as leading thinkers and
activists from around the world.
The inquiry
examined the links between biological, economic and social factors in improving
women’s health, including the effects of rapid globalisation, urbanisation and
climate change.
It found that,
despite being the backbone of the healthcare system, women rarely held
management or executive positions in global health. Women tended to have
lower-skilled, lower-paid jobs than men.
It also
highlighted the disparity in the care and support women receive in poorer
settings. Particularly in the case of maternal health, poorer women often have
to rely on healthcare delivered by frequently under-resourced, underpaid, or
unpaid, untrained workers – usually women – such as traditional birth
attendants, community health workers or relatives.
Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the
Royal College of Midwives, said the findings demonstrate that women “need and
deserve” more resources.
“Investment in
women and girls through ensuring access to resources such as food and education
has significant health benefits,” she said.
“Girls who
remain longer in education marry later [and] have fewer children, are less
likely to die or be damaged as a result of pregnancy and birth and make greater
financial contributions to their families.
“By not
acknowledging women’s unpaid contributions to family and community wellbeing,
it is less likely that the often male-dominated governments will allocate
resources to women that they need and deserve.
“Improving access
to education will also ultimately, and hopefully, lead to more women in positions
of influence within these governments.”
The report called
for women’s contribution to healthcare to be adequately compensated and valued
in order to advance sustainable development.