Answering the Call: Honoring Female Health Workers on International Women’s Day
“It started a long time ago when I was still young,” recalls Mariam Louise Walusimbi. “I really had the passion to take care of the sick.” She’s now a critical care nurse in Uganda.
Mary Gitari’s heart was touched when she first caught a glimpse of nurses in their bright white uniforms. “When I visited the hospital,” she remembers, “I saw how beautiful the nurses looked, and how they were giving good care to their patients. I wanted to be one of them.” She’s now a nursing officer in Kenya.
Raissa Tshindibo’s mother was a nurse. “I really admired this profession,” she explains. “So I really wanted to be involved. I like saving people’s lives!” She’s now a resuscitation unit nurse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
These women all answered a calling to help others. They studied hard and, along with other women like them, now comprise the majority of health workers in developing countries. According to the WHO, women make up more than 75% of the health workforce in many countries. In some countries, 90% of nurses and midwives are women.
With a global shortage of 4 million health workers, women are crucial for the delivery of health services.
This International Women’s Day, CapacityPlus honors these women and other female health workers who are caring for their communities. And, all year long, CapacityPlus’s gender work is in alignment with this year’s theme of equality.
Although the majority of health workers in developing countries are female, various forms of gender discrimination present significant barriers to women achieving their dreams. Gender inequalities and discrimination may keep them from entering into health occupations in the first place, and then contribute to attrition, absences from work, low productivity, or low morale later on.
Addressing gender-related discrimination and inequality in health workforce policy and planning, workforce development and management, and workforce support is essential to addressing the global shortage and maldistribution of health workers and improving the accessibility and quality of services. That’s why CapacityPlus facilitates national governments’ use of gender information to guide health workforce policy, planning, development, and management decisions.
CapacityPlus recently published several tools to support women like Mariam, Mary, and Raissa who hear the calling. Check them out and let us know what you think.
- A technical brief, Strengthening the Health Worker Pipeline through Gender-Transformative Strategies, describes how certain forms of gender discrimination affect health professional students and faculty, and presents ways to counter the problem.
- A free eLearning course produced by the HRH Global Resource Center, Foundations of Gender Equality in the Health Workforce, introduces concepts, issues, and standards to promote gender equality in the health workforce.
- A technical brief, Innovative Financing Options for the Preservice Education of Health Professionals, suggests 19 ways to pay for preservice education.
- Another technical brief, Scaling Up Health Worker Production: The Bottlenecks and Best Buys Approach, helps health education stakeholders identify bottlenecks to providing quality preservice education and prioritize affordable actions for increasing the quantity of graduates while maintaining or improving the quality of education.
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