Medical education, a status symbol for Female students?
Karachi, Jan 26: Female medical students enrol into the programme given the 'prestige' associated with the profession, said a doctor. The doctor in question, who graduated from Dow Medical College (DMC) in 2005, taught at a private medical college for over a year. However, once she got married, she had to resign since she was moving abroad for a while.
According to her, it is difficult to find a job in public-sector hospitals. Not only this but also, the work environment there is not conducive to women. Patients do not give female doctors respect. In fact, sometimes, female doctors are also subjected to maltreatment. She recalled that when she was doing her house job at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), the father of a prominent political worker suffering from stroke was admitted there. His party workers ransacked the hospital for a "minor reason", and even mistreated the female doctors there.
She also said that it's not the poor salary packages and night shifts that discourage female doctors but the way they are treated that forces them to stay away.
She suggested that fresh graduates should be appointed in the areas from which they hail (which sometimes include rural areas) as doctors are needed there. Unfortunately, most of them prefer to stay back and work in urban areas.
Another female doctor who graduated from the Sindh Medical College (SMC) in 2006 said she was unable to practice because soon after her exams, she got married. Her husband is financially well-off, and she said that her in-laws preferred it if she "looked after her family" rather than go out and work.
The doctor in question is now the mother of a one-year old girl and says that she "cannot think of practicing along with raising my daughter".
Dr Sidra Ahmed, a graduate of Jinnah Medical and Dental College, said that it is unfair to generalise this issue. According to Dr Ahmed, there are a lot of girls from her class who are married and are practicing. "I think most women want to become doctors not because they want a good marriage proposal, but because this is the only profession that has scope all over the world and even one moves abroad, you can still practice," she explained.
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