Department of Business Administration, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, Pakistan.
CENTER of Excellence for Continuous Education & Development (CECED), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
PLoS One. 2023 Oct 5;18(10):e0288527. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288527. eCollection 2023.
In Pakistan, women outnumber men in medical colleges with 80 percent enrollment, yet many fail to practice medicine following graduation. Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) states 50 percent of graduated women doctors either did not practice or left employment in a short period. Thus, the non-servicing women doctors are assumed as the one of the major causes for the overall doctors' shortage in the country. Addressing this enduring matter, this study aims to explore and understand the factors that discourage women doctors from practicing medicine in Pakistani hospitals. The study employed qualitative exploratory inquiry with an interpretive paradigm to attain a deeper understanding of the problem. 59-semi structured interviews were conducted by non-working women doctors across the entirety of Pakistan. The narratives were then analyzed by thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti 22. The findings have resulted in the three major themes, i.e., workplace challenges, socio-cultural obstructions, and familial restrictions that possibly obstruct women from practicing medicine in hospitals. The findings suggested that accepting traditional cultural values, including entrenched gender roles in society, deters women from practicing medicine. The prevailing patriarchal societal system includes stereotypes against working women; early marriages hinder women from practicing medicine. The prevailing societal system upholds the influence of in-laws and a husband for women doctor professional employment. As a result, severe work-life conflict was reported where most women doctors ended up in their profession in the middle of struggling between socially rooted gender roles as homemakers and their professional careers-furthermore, the study found various workplace issues that posit an additional burden on already struggling women doctors. Issues include poor recruitment and selection process, transfer constraints, excessive workload with inadequate salary, harassment, gender discrimination, unsafe work environment, and little support from the administration highly contribute to the shortage of women doctors in Pakistan.
在巴基斯坦，医学院的女生人数多于男生，注册率达到 80%，但许多人毕业后未能行医。巴基斯坦医学委员会（PMC）表示，50%的女医生要么没有行医，要么在短时间内离职。因此，未服务的女医生被认为是该国医生总体短缺的主要原因之一。为了解决这个长期存在的问题，本研究旨在探讨和理解阻碍巴基斯坦女医生在医院行医的因素。本研究采用定性探索性调查和解释性范式，以更深入地了解该问题。在巴基斯坦各地，对 59 名非在职女医生进行了半结构式访谈。然后，通过使用 ATLAS.ti 22 的主题分析对这些叙述进行了分析。研究结果得出了三个主要主题，即工作场所挑战、社会文化障碍和家庭限制，这些因素可能阻碍了女性在医院行医。研究结果表明，接受传统的文化价值观，包括社会中根深蒂固的性别角色，阻止了女性行医。盛行的父权制社会体系包括对职业女性的刻板印象；早婚阻碍了女性行医。盛行的社会体系维护着姻亲对女性医生职业就业的影响以及丈夫的影响。因此，报告了严重的工作与生活冲突，大多数女医生在挣扎于作为家庭主妇的社会根源性别角色和她们的职业之间的中途选择了自己的职业，此外，研究还发现了各种工作场所问题，这些问题给已经在挣扎中的女医生增加了额外的负担。这些问题包括招聘和选拔过程不佳、调动限制、工作量大但工资不足、骚扰、性别歧视、不安全的工作环境以及管理层的支持甚少，这些问题都导致了巴基斯坦女医生的短缺。
