KARACHI:
According to figures provided by the government of Pakistan, women occupy more than 70% of seats in medical schools but only 27% of them are registered as doctors. Today, almost 85,000 female doctors are not working after receiving their degree.
Unfortunately, we are quick to blame women for their decisions to not practise medicine, but we fail to understand the reasons behind it. While most parents encourage or in some cases even force their daughters to study medicine, considering it as a very respectable field, they are reluctant on letting them work. In our society, a working woman is seen as incapable of being a homemaker. Many conservatives feel that this is the sole purpose of a woman’s life. In some cases, women are married right after their graduation and are expected to raise kids. They are burdened with the household responsibilities, receiving little to no support from their husbands and in-laws to pursue their careers.
Besides these reasons, the workplace in Pakistan is extremely unkind to women as discrimination and harassment are rampant. One does wonder as to how many women wouldn’t want to work by their own choice after receiving a hard-earned degree.
Aisha Manzoor
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2021.
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