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Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique
BACKGROUND: Achieving significant female representation in government at decision-making levels has been identified as a key step towards achieving gender equality. In 2015, women held 39.6% of parliamentary seats in Mozambique, which is above the benchmark of 30% that has been suggested as the turn...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6237335/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30439988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207225 |
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author | Sawadogo-Lewis, Talata Cane, Réka Maulide Morgan, Rosemary Qiu, Mary Magaço, Amilcar Ngale, Kátia Roberton, Timothy |
author_facet | Sawadogo-Lewis, Talata Cane, Réka Maulide Morgan, Rosemary Qiu, Mary Magaço, Amilcar Ngale, Kátia Roberton, Timothy |
author_sort | Sawadogo-Lewis, Talata |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Achieving significant female representation in government at decision-making levels has been identified as a key step towards achieving gender equality. In 2015, women held 39.6% of parliamentary seats in Mozambique, which is above the benchmark of 30% that has been suggested as the turning point for minority representation to move from token status to having a sizable impact. We undertook a study to identify gender-related barriers and facilitators to improving women-centered policies in the health sector. METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews with 39 individuals (32 women, 7 men) involved at a senior level in policy making or implementation of woman-centric policies within the Mozambique Ministry of Health and affiliated institutions. We used a semi-structured interview guide that included questions on difficulties and facilitating factors encountered in the policy making process, and the perceived role of gender in this process. We used both deductive and inductive analysis approaches, starting with a set of pre-identified themes and expanding this to include themes that emerged during coding. RESULTS: Our data suggest two main findings: (1) the women who participated in our study generally do not report feeling discrimination in the workplace and (2) senior health sector perceive women to be more personally attuned to women-centric issues than men. Within our specific sample, we found little to suggest that gender discrimination is a problem professionally for female decision-makers in Mozambique. However, these findings should be contextualized using an intersectional lens with recognition of the important difference between descriptive versus substantive female representation, and whether “percentage of women” is truly the best metric for gaging commitment to gender equality at the policy making level. CONCLUSIONS: Mozambique’s longstanding significant representation of women may have led to creating an environment that leads to positive experiences for female decision-makers in the government. However, while the current level of female representation should be celebrated, it does not negate the need for continued focus on female representation in decision-making positions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6237335 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-62373352018-12-01 Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique Sawadogo-Lewis, Talata Cane, Réka Maulide Morgan, Rosemary Qiu, Mary Magaço, Amilcar Ngale, Kátia Roberton, Timothy PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Achieving significant female representation in government at decision-making levels has been identified as a key step towards achieving gender equality. In 2015, women held 39.6% of parliamentary seats in Mozambique, which is above the benchmark of 30% that has been suggested as the turning point for minority representation to move from token status to having a sizable impact. We undertook a study to identify gender-related barriers and facilitators to improving women-centered policies in the health sector. METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews with 39 individuals (32 women, 7 men) involved at a senior level in policy making or implementation of woman-centric policies within the Mozambique Ministry of Health and affiliated institutions. We used a semi-structured interview guide that included questions on difficulties and facilitating factors encountered in the policy making process, and the perceived role of gender in this process. We used both deductive and inductive analysis approaches, starting with a set of pre-identified themes and expanding this to include themes that emerged during coding. RESULTS: Our data suggest two main findings: (1) the women who participated in our study generally do not report feeling discrimination in the workplace and (2) senior health sector perceive women to be more personally attuned to women-centric issues than men. Within our specific sample, we found little to suggest that gender discrimination is a problem professionally for female decision-makers in Mozambique. However, these findings should be contextualized using an intersectional lens with recognition of the important difference between descriptive versus substantive female representation, and whether “percentage of women” is truly the best metric for gaging commitment to gender equality at the policy making level. CONCLUSIONS: Mozambique’s longstanding significant representation of women may have led to creating an environment that leads to positive experiences for female decision-makers in the government. However, while the current level of female representation should be celebrated, it does not negate the need for continued focus on female representation in decision-making positions. Public Library of Science 2018-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC6237335/ /pubmed/30439988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207225 Text en © 2018 Sawadogo-Lewis et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Sawadogo-Lewis, Talata Cane, Réka Maulide Morgan, Rosemary Qiu, Mary Magaço, Amilcar Ngale, Kátia Roberton, Timothy Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title | Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title_full | Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title_fullStr | Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title_full_unstemmed | Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title_short | Reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: A qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in Mozambique |
title_sort | reaching substantive female representation among decision-makers: a qualitative research study of gender-related experiences from the health sector in mozambique |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6237335/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30439988 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207225 |
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