Introduction
Gender issues in health between women and men are different and there is a disparity in how the health systems respond to men and women issues. Women in most countries are disadvantaged and encounter many problems with their health issues.
Women have specific health issues that are not determined only by biological factors. Just as men, women need to access resources for basic survival but in most cases, women are disadvantaged in terms of their social economic status. Moreover, women face more problems because of the discrimination they encounter based on their gender.
For example, parents invest less time and money towards their girls but give their sons the best education. In other instances, girls may be forced to get married at an early age to help the family get some money in terms of bride price.
Therefore, due to the disadvantages women face they are limited in their ability to seek medical assistance in case they fall ill. Different genders in South East Asia face many specific health issues.
Poverty
Poverty is one of the gender specific health issues in South East Asia. Poverty is the largest cause of human suffering on earth and a merciless killer. It destroys every aspect of human life by reducing the life expectancy of its victims. Poor people cannot access medical services and the tragedy is greater for poor women than men.
Furthermore, women experience economic inequality and they do not get the same compensation for their labor like women. Women earn less than men do for equal or greater amount of work they do hence their earnings are low (Devasahayam, 2010).
Therefore, a large number of the population lives in poverty for example about half of the population in Nepal and Bangladesh live below the poverty lines (Rashen & Shah, 2006). The poor populations lack basic needs such as meals and clothing.
Studies show that about seventy percent of the people living in poverty are women in the world. Women living in rural areas live in abject poverty. Statistics show that about two hundred and fifty million women in South East Asia live in absolute poverty.
Dimensions of poverty
Lack of basic needs is not the only dimension of poverty because it has many other dimensions. The other dimensions are lack of opportunities to access education and other human developments. The lack of the opportunities hinders the poor people women included from enjoy healthy lives, decent living and meaningful lives. The poor people lack self-esteem and dignity and even lack the respect of other people.
Poverty affects people beyond monetary terms and affects their lives negatively. They suffer from human poverty that means they are unable to have access to information and resources (Ghosh & Siddique, 2001). Poverty makes it difficult for girls to access education and employment in the future.
Women who lack education are not able to take care of their health and that of their children who die during their childhood as shown in the following figure
On the contrary, in Bangladesh where efforts have been made to bring about gender parity the child mortality rates have gone down significantly (Levine & What Works Working Group, 2004).
Moreover, women are restricted in terms of physical mobility hence they cannot go and look for employment as men do and thus their chances of improving their economical status are limited.
The lack of opportunities deny women the chance of living dependently and they are unable make important decisions concerning their lives.
Women suffer most in poverty because even if they are in the same level of poverty with men, they do not have an equal chance of escaping from the poverty trap like men. Such women would not be in a position to improve their health because of their vulnerability to poverty.
Vulnerability
The women in South East Asia experience health issues because their gender makes them vulnerable to poverty. For instance, most of the women are illiterate; they have no access to assets or resources and are few in the labor force.
In Pakistan, they lack access to resources and opportunities because that nature of social practices and legislation that is discriminatory against women (Khan & Laaser, 2001). In Nepal women, face discrimination because of their caste and those in the lower caste maybe restricted from health care services (Ohashi, 2001).
Position of women
The position of the women in the South East Asia countries puts women in a difficult position when it comes to their health issues. The countries in the region are at a crossroad between modernity and tradition. Many of the societies have strong traditions and women are unable to push for autonomy in most of the patriarchal societies.
The women may be willing to participate more in the economy and advance their education but they efforts are not enough in societies that have strong traditions because they are accused of tampering with the status quo. The health issues of women are not very important in such societies such as in Pakistan where women have a high mortality rate than men in their twenties (Perveen, 2011).
Son preference
Some of the societies prefer sons hence daughters face seclusion in the society and their health issues are sometimes beyond their control. For example, many women do not have a say in their marriages and hence may not have control of their reproductive health.
The men may decide how many children a woman will bear without the regard of the woman’s health. In societies that value sons a woman will be forced to keep giving birth until she bears a son and the multiple births will affect her health negatively.
The son preference in some of the countries such as India, threatens the survival of the girl child (Gender Inequality, n.d.). Studies have shown that many girl children die during childhood and the trend is attributed to neglect of the girls in preference of the boys.
Discrimination against girls
The girl child discrimination hurts the women further especially in the case of infanticide. Female child are killed before they are born because they are unwanted.
The women who practice infanticide put their health at risk as they may die of complications during the procedures yet they have to go through the practice as society demands they not give birth to baby girls (Who Regional Office for the South-East A, 2009).
The practice of infanticide is still being practiced in India even though the numbers have gone down significantly. Selective abortions of female fetus continues in India as most of the women who opt to go for sex test end their pregnancies if it is female but those carrying a male child proceed with the pregnancy to term.
Seclusion of women makes denies them an opportunity to access health care services. The practice is called purdah. It happens because the women are not allowed to go away from their homes especially in Bangladesh and Nepal. Married women cannot leave their homes unless they are in the company of a male (Kantor, 2002).
In addition, they are not allowed to speak to males who are not close family members. The women who observe purdah cannot allow a male doctor to attend to them hence if there are no female doctors such women will not get medical attention.
The fact that many women lack opportunity to advance in education means that few become doctors if they get a chance to study. The women in seclusion thus do not have the medical personnel to take care of their specific health issues (Sen, 2010).
Other women have never sought medical care in their lives. Seclusion denies the women an opportunity to interact with the world and lack access to information regarding health issues and is not in a position to take care of their health and prevent ill health.
Early marriages
Early marriages occur in some communities. Young girls get married to older men and hence are exposed to sexual abuse. The young girls become vulnerable to physical and psychological abuse from the men who marry them. The health of such young girls is risked, as they have no say over their reproductive health. The young girls give birth at young ages and their health is put at jeopardy (Suad & Najmabadi, 2003).
Property inheritance
Many societies do not allow women to inherit property. The women thus do not have assets and resources. The lack of resources and assets affects their health negatively because in times of sickness they cannot obtain medical attention due to lack of money.
Women who own property are more likely to feel that they have a right to take care of their health and go ahead to take care of their well-being. For example, Hindu women from Bangladesh cannot inherit property from their fathers.
The women who inherit property such as land do not have full control over it and give it to their brothers or male relatives hence in reality the property does not help to improve their economic status. Consequently, such women do not access health care, as they should (Naʻīm, 2002).
Poor housing
Poor housing conditions also affect gender specific health issues. People living in poor housing face potential health risks due to overcrowding in houses that lack proper ventilation (Howard, Bogh & World Health Organization, 2002). The houses many also lack basic amenities such as it is for a big population living in Jakarta and Colombo in India.
They live in houses that lack supply of water, proper waste disposal, poor drainage and sewage. Their living conditions expose them to diseases. It is important to note that even if both men and women live in poor conditions women are more at risk of getting ill health.
The women spend most of their time indoors because they are homemakers and take care of children but the men spend most of their time away from houses as they work outside homes. Therefore, women are exposed more to pollutants at homes than men.
Moreover, women suffer physical abuse that is contributed by overcrowding in the poor living housings and their health affected adversely (Howard, Bogh & World Health Organization, 2002).
Work conditions
The kind of work one does affects one’s health. Men and women do different jobs due to their gender as dictated by society. Many women work at home; provide food for the family and general maintenance. Some women have to walk long distances in search of water and firewood and their health maybe affected by such chores (Gender Issues in India, 1995).
On the other hand, women not only work at home but they may have to work outside home to earn a living for the family. The women are overworked and have no time to rest, which is very important in ensuring one remains healthy.
They must work for their children and their bodies get weary and become vulnerable to diseases. The women unlike men may have to work in hazardous working conditions thus exposing them to illnesses. They work in the hazardous conditions because they are often taken to work in less desirable tasks, which are considered suitable for their gender.
Thus, women are exposed to more risks that affect their health than men because of the roles they play such as bearing and nurturing children and the type of jobs they do.
Conclusion
Gender inequality leads to lack of access for the disadvantaged gender specifically the women. They face many specific health issues because of their gender. The problems women face in health can be reduced by closing the gap between the genders and promoting gender parity so that women can have access to healthcare.
Women should be empowered in order to take control of their health and seek medical attention regularly. The government can help the women through legislation of bills that protect women against discrimination in various matters such as education and inheritance so that can be in a position to improve their health.
A healthy woman will bring up healthy children hence healthy nation.
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