Women, Healthcare, and Violence in Pakistan

Description

This book offers a research-based account of the prevalent attitudes towards female healthcare practitioners in Pakistan.

Seeking to explore the plight of female healthcare practitioners in the country, Sara Rizvi Jafree’s Women, Healthcare, and Violence in Pakistan is an examination of the South Asian cultural approach towards the traditional and historical working woman, particularly the healthcare professional. The book describes the laws that protect or harm such women in the workplace, and the real perils of physical and verbal harassment that they face during their service.

Imbued with deep insights into the role of women in Islam, their socialization and the threats to healthcare professionals like nurses, doctors, and lady health workers, this book presents anecdotes based on ethnographic research and factual knowledge which makes it an impressive resource for understanding this social issue. Exploring the perpetration of brutality through victims’ testimonies, the author successfully paints a panorama on the theme of workplace cruelty, an important factor in the current discourse in Pakistan on this issue.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. The Women Healthcare Profession in a Patriarchal World
   1. Definitions and Types of Workplace Violence
   2. Workplace Violence: A Global Predicament
   3. Workplace Violence: The Existing Scholarship from Pakistan
   4. Media Reports
   5. Legal Status for Working Women
   6. Conclusion
4. Theories of Workplace Violence
   1. Perpetrator Theories
   2. Structural Theories
   3. Victim Theories
   4. Violence and the Link to Patient Safety
   5. Conclusion
5. Quantitative Evidence of Workplace Violence
   1. Types of Women Healthcare Practitioners in Pakistan
   2. The Condition of Public Hospitals in Pakistan
   3. Findings
   4. Conclusion
6. Voiced Experiences of the Workplace: Learning by Listening
   1. Culture and Patriarchy
   2. Governance and Structure
   3. Conclusion
7. Women Practitioners in Support of Cyclical Violence
   1. Forced Professions and Conflict amongst Women Practitioners
   2. Accepting Violence and Owning Perpetrators
   3. The Hidden Pact
   4. Coping Strategies against Violence
   5. Conclusion
8. The Perpetrators’ Silent Allies
   1. Guilt and Blame-shifting
   2. Administrative Legacies
   3. Second-class Professionals
   4. Conclusion
9. Women Practitioners Matter: Contesting Patriarchy for Care-Providers
   1. The Question of Women Practitioners’ Rights
   2. Policy Direction
   3. Conclusion
10. Bibliography
11. Index

Author Description

Sara Rizvi Jafree, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Forman Christian College (FCC), Lahore

Sara Rizvi Jafree is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the Forman Christian College (FCC), Lahore. She has published multiple articles concerning women and healthcare in Pakistan including ‘Ethical violations in the clinical setting: The hidden curriculum learning experience of Pakistani nurses’ and ‘Maternal employment in Pakistan: Socio-demographic shortfalls and association with birth weight’.