A panel on healthcare on Thursday called for increased involvement of women in leadership positions aimed at achieving access to quality healthcare for women.
Dr. Ebere Okereke, Senior Technical Adviser, Tony Blair Institute, expressed concern over the under-representation of women in leadership positions.
Okere said that women constituted about 70 per cent of health workers but with less than 20 per cent of them in the leadership class.
She condemned the patriarchal structure where women were placed as dependents, with no value.
“Majority of women’s needs must be addressed at all levels, involve women in decision making.
“For example in Nigeria, before women gain access to some sexual reproductive health services, their husbands’ permission is sought, is it not indirect denial of rights,” she queried.
Okereke said that it was necessary to break the barriers that silenced women.
According to her, most of the healthcare systems are not structured to meet the needs of women.
Prof. Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor, University of Global Health Equity, expressed her determination to continue to pursue equity for women because women had less.
Binagwaho said that quality healthcare could not be discussed or guaranteed without increasing quality care.
She identified education as one of the key drivers required for women to improve their access to quality healthcare.
The don called for local production of contraceptives and other maternal healthcare needs of women to increase quality care.
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Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet, Lead & Executive Director, MSD for Mothers, said that until women’s lives were valued by inclusiveness in policies, reducing maternal mortality would still be unattainable.
Etiebet emphasised the need for gender parity in leadership recruitment to improve women’s access to quality healthcare.
She noted that it was time for collective effort to end all manner of acts that tended to cause under-representation of women in leadership positions.
Earlier, Mrs Vivianne Ihekweazu, Managing Director, Nigeria Health Watch, organisers of the Future of Health Conference called for end to gender inequality.
Ihekweazu explained that the “HeforShe Movement“ by her organisation was aimed at making men support women to attain leadership positions. (NAN)
