Association of the International Institute for Women's Solidarity “Solidarity” and a preparatory Committee of doctors, pharmacists, academics and professionals in the medical and health sector are holding “Anisa Conference” next Saturday, under the supervision of President of the Senate, Faisal Al Fayez, to discuss women conditions in medical and health sector.
The conference will present number of documented papers telling women careers in this sector and discussing the nature of their work, and their ambitions to an open dialogue between women movement, Jordanian civil society and workers in the sector. This conference comes within the Women Empowerment for Leadership project implemented by “Solidarity” association, where some women will be awarded for their achievements.
Statistical Report for 2014 issued by the Department of Statistics indicates that, number of female and male doctors affiliated to the union until 2014 reached 19477, with only 3348 female doctors, taking into consideration that, the 13-member Council of the Medical Syndicate was free of female representation. There are 2273 female doctors specialized in General Medicine, 330 in Women and Obstetrics, 204 in Pediatrics, 79 in Family Medicine, 76 in Internal Medicine, 73 in ophthalmology, and the rest were distributed to other majors, with no female doctors specialized in Orthopedics, and neurosurgery.
According to the chart issued by Jordanian Doctors’ Syndicate, 989 female doctors work in the public sector, and 822 work in the private one, while 1537 female doctors are self-employed.
“Solidarity” Association said that, all electronic websites for all specialized bodies don’t state any information or numbers of Jordanian female surgeons, and yet the association believes that, their number is very small compared to other medical majors, due to many reasons such as, customs and social habits that believe neurosurgery isn’t suitable for women. In the absence of such information, the association conducted full analysis of the accredited list of doctors and surgeons in the largest medical network in Jordan for 2014, and was found that the number of female and male doctors and surgeons in various specialties amounted to 516, including 15 female surgeons with a percentage of no more than 0.03%, distributed between ophthalmology, Kidney & Urology Surgery, Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery and General Surgery, and with zero female surgeons in all other specialties.
The reason behind women absence from delicate specialties is the challenges they face during study by the parents, the society, colleges, and faculty staff, as they believe these specialties are made only for men. On the other hand, the first president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Britain, Dr. Claire Marx says that, there must be more focus on professional improvement for female surgeons, knowing that they are only 800 female doctors in Britain, adding that there is no equality between genders when it comes to surgery specialties,
According to the report "Jordan in Figures 2015" issued by the Department of Statistics, in 2015, the number of public and private hospitals in Jordan amounted to 104, with 13143 beds compared to 2014 and despite this increase, the population per bed rose to 727 people compared to 710 in 2014. Also the number of pharmacies increased to 2461 in 2015 compared to 2298 in 2014, while the population of each pharmacy increased from 3,831 to 3,384 in 2015, and the number of doctors increased to 25.6 per 10 thousand citizens compared to 2014.
“Anisa Conference” was named after Anisa Chokair, who made her career in the health sector in a very young age and amid hard circumstances, trying to close the gap between genders and fighting customs. She married in a young age, she studied nursery and worked in a government job with low salary until she became the head of nursing staff in Malhs private hospital in Amman in 1948. She also worked in Saudi Arabia, and moved to number of Arab Countries where everyone respected her.
She helped many mothers and pregnant women and delivered many babies in Oman including members of the Royal Family until she was known as “Mother of Oman”. She died in 2000 aged 95 in her house, and in her honor, “Solidarity” association named the conference after her.