Breaking Barriers: Challenges Faced by Women in Indian Healthcare

Challenges and Hurdles for Female Healthcare Professionals—an Introduction

Women in Indian healthcare are perhaps the inspiration behind our Bollywood superheroes - fighting villains of patriarchy and bureaucracy while saving lives with a smile. Well, as an author, I almost imagined it. On a serious note, our Indian goddesses have battled more challenges when pursuing medicine than some of us could have ever imagined. The story doesn’t end there. 

Though stats show that the number of women entering healthcare as an industry has increased in the past decade, the underlying sighs and bumps continue to pose challenges. From family demands, and career-children balance to exploitation at work, the issues hold. Stay with us on this International Women's Day 2024, let’s uphold the theme “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress”. We can discuss the obstacles and work together to find solutions.

Dissecting the Barriers to Practicing Healthcare in Women

Barriers existed then and are prevalent now as well. All that changed was their type. As women of today, we need to first identify if there exists a gender bias when it comes to pursuing careers. Only when you know the problem, can you solve it. 

Here is a compilation of what we identified as gender-related pain points in the industry:

• Gender Disparities in Indian Healthcare

Disparity—a difference in the way of treatment—to a level that may seem unfair. Disparities exist everywhere. They are often socially constructed and set trends in the way we look at people. 

Historical bias is to blame when it comes to gender disparities in Indian healthcare. The issue is ingrained so deep into the systems that uprooting it will take time. 

We are talking about:

• Historical biases in male-directed clinical research

• Limited access to healthcare due to poverty, violence, and discrimination

• The issues of underpaid care work. This holds for nurses, nannies, midwives, Anganwadi workers, etc. 

• Poor access to sexual and reproductive health services for all.

• Disparity in research funding for female healthcare services and programs for women. 

• Skepticism about Representation in Leadership Roles

In the Indian healthcare industry, women make up almost half of the workforce, but there is a clear gender gap in senior positions. 

While women dominate roles such as nursing and community health workers, they are severely underrepresented at the executive and board levels of healthcare organizations. Women hold only 18% of healthcare leadership positions and earn 34% less than men. 

Stereotypes, social conventions, and a lack of flexible work policies all limit women's job progress. 

Private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies show similar trends, with women occupying only 25-30% and 5-10% of leadership positions, respectively. Despite comprising the majority of healthcare workers, only 17% of hospital board members are women. The sector is expected to add 8 million employees by 2030, providing an opportunity to address this gender gap through inclusive policies and cultural shifts.

• Gender Pay Gap

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have released a joint report highlighting significant gender pay disparities faced by women in the health and wellness sector. 

On average, women earn 24% less than their male counterparts, with a raw gender pay gap of approximately 20 percentage points. This gap widens to 24 percentage points when accounting for factors like age, education, and working time. 

The report emphasizes that:

• Women are underpaid compared to men for similar labor market attributes 

• Notes that wage disparities are common in sectors where women are predominant. 

Despite the crucial role played by health and care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were only marginal improvements in pay equality between 2019 and 2020. The report suggests that wide variations in gender pay gaps across different countries indicate that these gaps are not inevitable and that more can be done to close them.

It also brings to light that mothers working in the healthcare sector face uninformed penalties, with lay-offs and gender pay gaps significantly during their reproductive years. 

• Work-life Balance: Family Responsibilities

An Indian publication spoke about the work-life balance of working mothers in the healthcare industry.

Work-Life Balance (WLB) is the prioritization of personal and professional activities, including the presence of work-related tasks at home. It has been hitting the agenda for both the employees and employers and demands a more systematic approach to balancing work and personal responsibilities across various life facets. 

Efficiently handling responsibilities at work, home, and in other spheres of life while keeping work and personal interests apart is essential to effective work-life balance. Unbalanced work-life interactions can have a detrimental effect on people, families, and companies, which can lower productivity and health. 

For women in healthcare, these issues are slightly different:

• Factors contributing to WFC among working mothers include the time and job requirements that make it difficult to fulfill family responsibilities.

• Factors contributing to FWC among working mothers include home life, children, and family responsibilities interfering with work, such as work hours, accomplishing daily tasks, working overtime, and postponing tasks due to family demands.

The impact of work on the family is higher than that of the family on work in most cases.

• Training programs in stress reduction, time management, and burnout reduction for working mothers in the private sector are a way to resolve matters.

• Stakeholders, decision-makers, and organizations must be able to support working mothers in the healthcare industry.

Further studies are needed to investigate the benefits of work-life balance, its broader context, its impact on stress and job involvement, the relationship between work-life balance and job satisfaction, and the link between family economic status and work-family conflict.

• Discrimination and Harassment

Studies say that there have been improvements happening in this aspect over the years, yet, harassment at odd clinical hours, in the OPD, unfair treatment, and limited opportunities continue to plague many women in Indian healthcare. 

This is perhaps the biggest factor impeding professional advancement. Such misconduct jeopardizes patient care and is unacceptable. 

Healthcare organizations work on strong hierarchical structures that steal power from many in the team. Strong disparities are not always positional they are gender biased and sexual too. 

Although there are legal frameworks in place, they are ‘not always’ adequately implemented or enforced. Awareness programs do the talking, but who does the watching? Strong policies and immediate enforcement of penalties for those at fault are perhaps the only ways to sustain this.

• Glass Ceiling Issues

What is the glass ceiling issue for women in healthcare?

The persistent obstacle that women and minorities face when trying to excel in their careers and rise to high positions within the organizations they work for is known as the "glass ceiling effect."

A study reviews available literature on the glass ceiling issues in the healthcare sector from 2000 to 2019, aiming to identify barriers faced by women in their careers. 

After evaluating 32 studies, it concludes that despite increasing female participation, women remain underrepresented in senior positions due to the existence of a glass ceiling. Organizational, societal, and personal barriers hinder women's advancement in healthcare. The findings highlight the need for further progress to address gender inequality and promote women's career growth in the healthcare sector.

Can ANASTOMOS Be an Accomplice in Breaking Barriers for Women in Healthcare?

The ANASTOMOS family has an impressive representation of female founders, employees, and members. 

This all-encompassing online platform for healthcare careers is not a mere job board.

Our services are tailored and personally guided by healthcare career coaches. The USP is that the platform is uniquely built by healthcare experts for healthcare professionals. So we understand the pulse of the industry.

Quite similarly, our notable women-inclusive team understands the loopholes, the crunches, and the misfits of women in the industry and will ensure to hold your hand, breaking barriers and creating a space as you climb the career ladder. 

You are always updated about any job openings, both domestically and internationally, thanks to our experienced consultants and vast network within the healthcare sector. We, too, do not believe in 'spoon-fed' career guidance; instead, we empower you to acquire the appropriate healthcare profile over time.