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Women Healthcare in Panama
– Reported, March 28, 2012
Healthcare utilization and costs have glaring gender implications. Although women have a longer life expectancy than men in Panama (78 versus 73 years), women have higher rates of chronic illness which require more long-term care. (Mortality Country Fact Sheet 2006) When socioeconomic status is taken into account , the statistics are quite alarming.
Women who are poor are about six times more likely to die between the ages of 15 and 59 than women who are not poor. Men who are poor are about three times more likely to die between the ages of 15 and 59 than men who are not poor.
The health of working women in every socioeconomic status is compromised by overwork. The phrase second shift is used to describe womens contribution to home life after coming home from a full-time job. Many women who hold jobs also manage home and family, taking care of sick children, family members, or friends. Such work is undervalued; but without the womans input at home, men could not continue to work and earn a living to their present extent. Womens role as homemaker helps to maintain the health of those in the workforce and fuels the market economy by improving the productivity of the employees who, if healthy, are able to work with fewer interruptions.
Although women constitute about 80 percent of all healthcare staff in Latin America,there are very few women with decision-making power.
Elsa Gómez, Panamas regional advisor to the Pan American Health Organization, writes that in order to address healthcare from a gender perspective, Panama must engage women in the reform of the healthcare system with a particular focus on women from underrepresented groups, such as women from rural areas and from indigenous communities. Gómez believes that such inclusion will create a more equal distribution of burdens, benefits, and power (such as the difficulty in accessing healthcare and the unequal distribution of disease) and will necessarily influence the development of health.
Health development goes hand in hand with economic development, and it is therefore vital for Panama to cont inue to advance in this respect.
Because of acute and chronic illnesses that many women experience, such as diabetes, they have more frequent medical bills than do men and children; and yet women continue to earn less on average than men. Creating a healthcare system that takes into account the needs of women will allow for them to be more equal participants in the workforce and to be better able to manage the home. As Gómez says, women must be actively involved in the healthcare system. In 2000, women constituted 96 percent of nur s e s but onl y 35 pe r c ent of phy s i c i ans .
(Gender, Health and Development
) It is essential to encourage women to enter medical fields and become trained as doctors so that womens concerns are heard and addressed.
Womens substantial activist contributions are an undeniabl e part of the backbone of Panamanian society; so are the women who take on political responsibilities and who enter the workforce with college degrees behind them.
But real equality is a long way from being achieved. Many ideas have to change first: that women should have equal pay, that women can be leaders in the business world, that women can embark on political careers, that women can enter the scientific realm, and that women can teach young children that violence and abuse of others are forbidden. Above all, Panama must continue to invest in womens education and support women in attaining careers comparable to their educational attainment. It is essential to provide women with the support and tools to continue to work for the betterment of Panama.
Credits: Nayla Raad
More Information at:
http://www.lehigh.edu/~incntr/publications/perspectives/v25/women_in_panama.pdf
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