4 Ways to Prevent Sexual Harassment in the Health Workforce

By Constance Newman, Global technical lead for gender equality and health, IntraHealth InternationalApril 28, 2021Sexual harassment is a seemingly ubiquitous, intractable problem that prevents many women around the world from advancing in the workforce. To end it, we must understand how it operates.In 2017, for example, the Ugandan Ministry of Health conducteda study—with support from IntraHealth International’s USAID-fundedStrengthening Human Resources for Health Project—to better understand the nature of sexual harassment and why it so often went unreported.The study found:A pattern of men in higher-status positions abusing their institutional power to coerce sex from female health workers.Sexual coercion that reinforced vertical segregation and abridged women’s economic opportunities and professional advancement.Widespread unwanted sexual attention, such as nonconsensual touching and gender harassment that demeaned and objectified women and made it difficult for female health workers to establish professional identities.Real or threatened retaliation when advances were refused, victim-blaming, and gaslighting in the absence of organizational regulatory mechanisms, which suppressed reporting.Attrition and turnover when health workers quit or left the health sector through voluntary or punitive transfers.Health care clients who experienced sexual harassment and abuse by clinicians.Sexual harassment appeared to be pervasive and systemic in Ugandan pu...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Gender Equality Source Type: news