Avoid biases to ensuring women’s access to health
Because of social construction and systematic barriers, women hesitate to talk about their needs even in their houses. In most cases, other family members do not even know when a female member is ill
Bangladesh has had the least gender gap among South Asian countries for seven consecutive years. It has been placed 65th out of 156 Countries in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) latest Global Gender Gap Index 2021.
It is noteworthy to mention that the country has achieved remarkable success in reducing gender gaps, but we have to go a long way if we would like to get a women-friendly society. "Good health" is considered as a prerequisite of quality of life.
Women and girls, very often, encounter a good number of healthcare-related challenges that act as hindrances to their quality of life. A good number of gender-related social constructions and issues leave women vulnerable.
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Social, structural, and policy-related factors play a critical role in keeping women outside of health coverage. Firstly, because of the dominance of masculinity in every part of our society, male members of families make healthcare-related decisions for women and girls.
Since females are considered a "social and economic burden", families do not like to spend money on the health care of women. Secondly, 36.3% of women of our country are counted as members of the labour force.
Though they have their own income, a good share of them do not have the ability to decide to expend money on their own health care. Thirdly, women need to be accompanied by others, especially male family members, if they would like to visit clinics or hospitals.
In most cases, male members do not allocate their time to support female members to get health care services.
Fourthly, another popular social construction is that women are supposed to keep mum even in their crises. Because of the social construction and systematic barriers, women hesitate to talk about their needs even in their houses when necessary. In most cases, other family members do not even know when a female member is ill.
Fifthly, lack of consciousness about their own health and family responsibilities are the dominating interrelated factors that push them to become reluctant towards addressing their health care issues. It is known to all that in our society, women perform, mostly, all family-level responsibilities because of gender-based construction of family responsibilities.
Regular cooking, cleaning, and child rearing are framed as "women's work". After taking on the family burden, women do not get enough time to take care of themselves. However, women cannot take a break or stop working if they suffer from ill health. They do not go to a physician unless it is something severe.
The above male-dominated social constructions push women and girls to take health care from village doctors, medicine shops, kabiraj, friends, and neighbours. They are not habituated to receive health care services from government and non-government health service providers.
Apart from the secondary and tertiary health service providing institutions, we have a good health care providing network. For instance, "Community Clinics" and "Union Family and Health Care Centres" offer primary health care services at the doorsteps of rural areas of Bangladesh.
In the urban areas, the "Urban Primary Health Care Centres" offer low-cost and easily accessible healthcare services. The institutions indeed have several shortcomings and limitations but they are much better than self-medication and non-qualified, non-registered health care providers. Because of several gender-related biases and lack of awareness, women do not have access to quality health care services.
Last but not least, the overall health condition of women in Bangladesh is unsatisfactory, and they are affected by various diseases because of a lack of personal attention and access to health care.
Collective efforts are needed to reduce gender-related social constructions. The constructions are very much biassed towards men. Efforts are needed to avoid the biases that create hindrances to ensure equal access to health care services for women and girls.
We would like to note that the slogan of International Women's Day 2022 is "break the bias". Thus, it is the right moment to work collectively against all biases which generate gender-based inequality.
Removal of health-related biases must take priority because without having good health, women and girls will not be able to explore their full potential. In this connection, health-related gender construction must be addressed properly.
Aria Ashraf Anusakha is a student of the Department of Public Administration, University of Rajshahi.
Asif All Mahmud Akash is a student of the Department of Public Administration, University of Rajshahi.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
