By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey/Lawrencia Mensah
Accra, Mar.8.GNA- Ghana on Tuesday joined the world to observe this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) with a call on the government to encourage male entry into the nursing and midwifery profession.
Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, a former Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies, who made the call in Accra, said that should be done by a conscious campaign for a more attractive image and improvements in working conditions for nurses and midwives.
She was speaking at a ceremony held by the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) to mark the Day on the theme: “Gender Equality today for sustainable tomorrow in the nursing and midwifery professions.”
The GRNMA estimates that presently in Ghana, the nursing and midwifery profession is made up of over 80,000 females with only 26,000 males out of which only a few are midwives.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye said a gender equitable approach to a nation’s healthcare workforce was critical to ensuring that no one was left behind in receiving basic healthcare.
She said although nurses and midwives had fostered national development through health promotion, disease prevention and delivering primary healthcare, the profession had been portrayed as a female occupation, a reflection of the care work associated with women in the society.
“The quest for gender equality should begin from the nursing and midwifery training institutions, not only the content of the curriculum but in a way where there are differentials in treatment and participation of males and females,” she said.
Dr Ofei-Aboagye stressed the need for the GRNMA to push for more women in leadership on all health structures at the community and national level.
“Advancing gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow in nursing and midwifery require us to take pragmatic steps to ensure and educate, competent and motivated workforce within effective and responsive healthcare systems at all levels,” she said.
She said Ghana needed to maximise the capabilities and potential of nurses and midwives through professional collaborative partnerships, education, and continuous professional development.
Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Member of Parliament for Agona West and former Minister for Gender and Social Protection, said the overwhelming occupancy of women in the nurses and midwives’ profession showed the significant role women played in the nation’s health care system and globally.
“Since women are naturally born planners and are at the forefront of our healthcare delivery system, our plans as a nation to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and any other outbreak must be robust,” she said.
Mrs Morrison urged both men and women to challenge biases and misconceptions against women to help create a more inclusive and gender equal world.
Mrs Perpetual Ofori Ampofo, President of GRNMA, urged women to rise and take up more space, work hard and flourish in whatever they found themselves doing.
The International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8, each year to draw attention to the social, economic, cultural, and political circumstances of women while galvanising actions to achieve equality for women.
This year’s celebration has a hashtag “Break the Bias” and envisages a gender equal world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination.
