Women Dominate the Medical Field

This year 60% students (10,223) admitted to public and private medical colleges are females, according to the Directorate of General Health Services. A large number of female students entered and graduated from medical colleges in the last ten years. Women dominate the fields of obstetrics and gynaecology (96%) and paediatrics (57%).

A study carried out by researchers from International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and BRAC University’s James P Grant School of Public Health discovered that the top five reasons for women to pursue a medical career are – respect that comes with the medical profession, opportunity to help others, noble profession, childhood dream and financial security. Majority of the female medical students aspired to be in the fields of surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine and paediatrics, the study reports.

Some of the challenges that women have to face in the medical career are: poor housing conditions in remote postings, lack of social security, gender disparity in career and workplaces. Although women are dominating the medical field, these obstacles are also making some women drop out at a certain stage. These obstacles are also holding them back from pursuing a career in other medical fields, making them crowd in only a few selected areas of the profession.

Source: Dhaka Tribune