Social Development and Medical Education: A Gender-Based Policy Making in Iran
6 Pages Posted: 9 Oct 2012
Date Written: October 9, 2012
Abstract
Confronted with the critical demands of human resource development in Iran after 1978,the authorities of medical education under the prohibitions or reinforcements of religion and ideology decided to implement a gender-based medical approach both in education and practice. Due to the regulations established in this field, there were chosen some female physicians to become specialists in each medical branch so that the women could refer to women specialists without any concern about opposite sex contact and touch imposed by religious perceptions. The referral system, defined as equal accessibility for women to female physicians, was based on separating sexes in medical institutes and health centers. In practice, some correlated difficulties appeared which lowered the confidence level for people. The first, lack of accessibility to female physicians in remote villages forced people to use by-pass directions to get medical treatment. Second, gender-based skills in medicine believed to be in favor of men, were platforms for women to choose the opposite sex physicians .The last but not the least, ignorance of abilities in finding higher positions could be a dual misstep in which competent men were deprived of access to specialty and low-competent women could be selected for the education they could not use in future. The continuous change in policy making to select competent candidates to bridge the gap in gender-based treatment took its poll on sustainability and social development in all aspects of life especially in rural areas. This paper analuses the negative attitudes brought about in gender-based medical education in Iran.
Keywords: Education, Female, Social development, Treatment, Urbanism
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