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At least six million women work in health systems around the world without pay, or with symbolic remuneration. All this, without counting the care tasks that, on many occasions, entail that women are the ones who watch over the health of their loved ones, often to the detriment of their own.
Is it only work if you earn a salary? For millions of women around the world, the answer is no. At the heart of health systems around the world, carrying out essential tasks, there are many who do not receive any type of remuneration, or receive only symbolic payments.
A Women in Global Health report He puts it in figures: six million women work in these conditions. “In general, these women come from low-income families, with limited education, and serve as community health workers in their communities,” the publication reads.
The role of community health workers is essential, especially in countries with a large percentage of the population living in rural areas. For example, among his duties was traveling to remote communities in Latin America, Asia or Africa to talk about the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic and convince and help people to receive their injection.
The same report estimates that the women’s health workforce is valued at $3 trillion, of which approximately 50% is unpaid work.
But it is that even among women who do receive payment for their work, the global wage gap in health between men and women is 28%, one of the largest differences.
The weight of health at home
However, inequalities do not only exist within the formal workplace. Within the four walls of the house, it is once again the women who are in charge of ensuring the health of their relatives and loved ones, often under the pretext of gender roles, which lead them to assume the care jobs.
A Kaiser Foundation statistic, for example, looked at how children’s health care tasks were divided up in the United States. The data could not be more telling: in 79% of the cases, it was only the mothers who made decisions about the medical personnel who would care for their children. At 77%, again, only women were dedicated to taking their children to medical appointments and making sure they received the treatments prescribed.
When caring for a sick son or daughter, the mother assumed it alone 40% of the time, while care was joint 34% of the time. In contrast, the father only did so pyrrhic 4% of the time.
These health care tasks, which go far beyond children and extend to most family ties or loved ones, are essential for the well-being of the population. If they were to be performed in a health care facility, the system would probably collapse, so it relies on the effort and free time of thousands of women.
In addition, they are often detrimental to their own health: “women are often so busy taking care of others that they neglect their own health needs”, recalls in a statement the American Heart Association.
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