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The Gender Parity Index and its implications on the public work

Abstract:

Objective: to describe indicators of distribution by gender of medical doctors working in the Ecuadorian Ministry of Public Health and of medical students at state and private universities in the country, and the implications for human resource planning. Methods: a cross-sectional design study based on two databases: a) medical professionals working at the Ministry of Public Health from 2008 to 2012, and b) students from the twenty one medical schools in Ecuador; 2000-2013 cohorts. The description used proportions and CI95% calculated according to binomial distribution. Results: the Gender Parity Index among doctors aged 26 to 29 years, who started working for the Ministry of Health in 2008 was 2.36, and in 2012 was 1.41. The amount of vacancies from 2008 to 2012 increased 6.1 times. Among the medical students who started in 2008, the Gender Parity Index was 1.37 in public schools and 1.42 in private schools whereas this index was 1.02 for students who graduated from public universities in that same year and 0.63 for those of private universities. Conclusions: the Gender Parity Index of the medical professionals at the Ministry of Health in 2012 was lower than that of 2008. Although more women begin the medical studies than men, the number of women who graduate is lower than that of men. Human resource policy in public health must take into consideration the gender perspective in line with the Andean philosophy of Good Living.