Healthcare is a Feminist Issue
Since the start of the pandemic many people have experienced a worsening of their mental health. Factors such as social isolation, a loss of support and stress at work impacted the young and the elderly alike. When the pandemic started, many people found themselves in a frontline profession overnight. Many couldn't work from home as they were providing an essential service. This impacted professions such as teaching, nursing, and cleaning. These professions have historically been considered low skilled and, thus, given low wages as per their association with women. Suddenly, under the context of the pandemic, these professions were noted as essential to society.
During the start of the lockdown in 2020, healthcare workers experienced a high level of anxiety and stress at work. They also reported lower levels of wellbeing. According to research published by the University of Sheffield in 2021, distress was especially felt by nurses and female healthcare workers. This brings us on to discuss why the mental health of healthcare workers is a feminist issue.
Feminism ties into the mental health of healthcare workers due to historical precedence. Jobs traditionally held by women in the industries of healthcare, teaching and cleaning have been coined ‘pink collar’. Within healthcare jobs 80% of non-medical staff are women and have been vastly undervalued and underpaid throughout history. This is despite, nowadays, many pink-collar jobs involving a high skill level and being positions held by experts and professionals. In fact, in the healthcare field, 48% of staff are now professionally qualified.
These jobs require – not only a degree but – specialist training, additional years of experience and higher education. However, due to the association with ‘feminine’ attributes, these roles still do not warrant the same level of respect that similar, but stereotypically ‘male’ careers do. The perception of the skill that these pink-collar jobs require is a factor leading to these careers being underpaid in the present day. The respect and perceived value and wage of a person’s job ties into their mental health. This makes it an important feminist issue.
Sadly, in healthcare today there is still the presence of a very rigid hierarchy between certain roles. Females make up a staggering 75% of the NHS workforce in the UK. However, only 35% of foundation trust directors (Chair/CEO) positions are filled by women and consultant (senior physician) positions are 68% male. Despite women being the driving force of the NHS, the managerial positions are still held predominantly by men. Hierarchy within a workplace has been found to contribute to a person’s stress levels. As stress ties very closely to mental health, the intensity with which the gender hierarchy is enforced and how this is affecting healthcare workers’ mental health makes it a feminist issue.
During the pandemic, nurses were hailed as ‘angels’ and ‘heroes’. Whilst the British public had every good intention in adopting this notion, it also had a slightly problematic undercurrent. For example, the idea that healthcare heroes and angels do not need adequate working conditions or a decent wage because they ‘do it from the good of their heart’. To get an idea of what a shift in A&E is like in the winter of 2021 for the average UK nurse, listen to this radio interview.
Just recently, controversial newspaper The Daily Mail published an article, citing how some NHS workers were on annual leave during a staffing crisis. It implies the workers, who are legally entitled to their annual leave, should feel a personal responsibility to forgo rest due to staffing issues beyond their control. When people are hailed as heroes instead of hardworking and inspiring individuals, it sets the precedence that personal boundaries must be eroded in service to their careers.
Uniform is another factor involving nurses and the level of autonomy they have over what they wear. Since the start of the pandemic, for infection control measures with Covid-19, scrubs have been widely adopted for use in places such as emergency departments. Prior to this, doctors have traditionally worn their own clothes to a smart/professional dress code, meanwhile nurses working in the same environment are expected to wear a uniform. This is despite both roles undertaking clinical involvement with a patient. An example being: a doctor performing a medical exam on a patient would wear a suit and tie, whereas a nurse holding a clinic with less patient contact would be required to wear uniform.
Another issue is the stereotypical notion that nurses exist to be of personal assistance to a doctor, erasing the existence of their own workloads such as: managerial responsibilities, training, and research. In a career such as nursing where around 90% of the workforce is female, the presence of a nurse/doctor hierarchy can be felt as a gender hierarchy whereby the nurses are in the ‘inferior’ position to the doctors.
With all these points in mind, it is important not to diminish the mental health of male healthcare workers. Men are statistically at higher risk of suicide and can face more societal barriers when it comes to seeking help and being supported for mental ill health. Paramedics, a career held in the majority (55%) by men, are also suffering burnout.
The mental health of healthcare workers is suffering due to hierarchical gender structure, the undervaluing and under appreciation of the professionalism of these jobs, low wages, and a lack of autonomy. At a time when healthcare workers have been essential to the survival and continuance of society, their mental health must be recognised and addressed. It’s important to understand the value of roles such as nurses, teachers, cleaners, and health care professionals, and to unlearn the conditioning which values these jobs as low skilled and therefore ‘deserving’ of a low wage. We should appreciate that many essential jobs are undertaken by women and insist they be valued higher in our society.
Due to the issues mentioned above, stemming for factors such as a male dominated managerial positions, stereotyping female roles and undervaluing females in the workplace, the mental health of healthcare workers is a feminist issue.
Written by Melissa Stephens
I am a Staff Nurse and also a writer! I work in A&E in Central London and started writing a blog exploring my experiences as a frontline healthcare worker during lockdown. Since then I have been regularly contributing to Arcadia magazine, both online and in print.
See my author profile here
I have written an article about Pink Collar jobs on my personal nursing blog which can be read here
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