Gender an issue in proper health care
Gender an issue in proper health care
By Zeynita Gibbons
JAKARTA (Antara): Women are generally more susceptible to
various diseases than men. The root of the problem is not only
biology but also the gender bias that women have experienced
since the day they were born, experts say.
The gender bias is blamed for the discrimination that women
receive in social, cultural and economic aspects of life based on
the perception that boys are more useful.
Traditionally, parents in Indonesia treat their sons better
than their daughters. Boys receive better attention for their
meals and education than girls do, with this discrimination
continuing when the women reach adulthood.
The most evident consequence of the discriminative treatment
is in reproductive health once they become adults, when women are
left to solve all the problems.
Women's health issues were raised in a seminar on "gender-
sensitive health care" at the University of Indonesia in Salemba,
Central Jakarta, last week. It was sponsored by the Foundation
for the Promotion of Internal Diseases Prevention.
The seminar discussed gender issues in health, the correlation
between local culture and women's health, maternal mortality,
women's reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases.
Dr. Pradana Soewondo of the University of Indonesia's School
of Health said that women and men needed different nutrients due
to their respective social and biological roles.
Pradana said women generally received a lesser portion of
meals than boys in communities where women were considered to
have lower social status.
In such communities, the father and the boys were served the
meat and the women were left the bones.
Discrimination against women also occurs in health services.
Medical and nutrition sciences have yet to more specifically
address women's health.
Female patients are commonly be treated by male doctors, who
are often less understanding about complaints from women who are
menstruating or going through menopause.
Reproduction
The discourse on women's reproductive rights began in the 17th
century in France and the 18th century in the United States when
the awareness of human rights took shape.
It was realized that all human beings, regardless of sex,
possessed equal rights to determine their destiny in education,
health, economics and politics.
In the 19th century there was growing awareness that women and
men held equal rights, including the rights to obtain health
service and to reproduction.
Dr. Setyawati Budiningsih from the University of Indonesia's
community health department said that the discourse on
reproductive health continued to gain ground.
Women's reproductive rights have been an international issue
for many years, but it was seriously discussed only in the 1994
International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in
Cairo and in the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing.
Women's reproductive rights also were addressed in the 1968
international conference on human rights in Teheran.
"The spirit that triggered the discourses on reproductive
rights is women's right to control their reproductive function,"
Setyawati said.
The ICPD agreed to define reproductive rights as the right of
a woman to freely decide on the number of children she wants to
have, the time span of conception, the right to obtain
information and the birth method.
The conference also agreed that women held the right to obtain
the highest standard of reproductive health service and
protection against discrimination and violence.
The maternal mortality rate is an important indicator of
women's health status in an area. According to Indonesian
official figures, the rate was 390 per 100,000 live births in
1994.
It was between three and six times higher than rates in other
Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries and 50
times higher than those of developed countries.
To lower the maternal death rate, the Indonesian government
has made various efforts, such as launching "proactive hospitals"
which pay special attention to women's health and offer special
services for women and their babies.