MyMedR

Since the emergence of nursing as a distinct discipline, its status has mirrored that of women in society in general. As a predominantly female profession, nursing has been subject to oppressive forces that have affected women at various stages of history. Despite improvements in the standing of both women and nursing during the past century, nursing has still failed to achieve its full potential. In Malaysia, sociocultural factors combine to further limit the development of the profession. This article explores how such factors merge with the oppression of nursing globally to influence the status of nursing in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Bride burning

Kumar V, Kanth S

Lancet, 2004 Dec;364 Suppl 1:s18-9.

PMID: 15967137

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

A veil over the East

Women Action, 1995.

PMID: 12291844

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Where no consent = death

IPPF News, 1977 Nov-Dec;2(6):5.

PMID: 12308740

Men must be made to understand the value of family planning - particularly in societies where men hold the power of decision in the family. Dr. Kotha Pannikar, chairman of the Kedah Family Planning Association (FPA) in Malaysia, illustrated this point in discussion which followed the Consultation of Medical and Communication Fieldworkers conference in Kuala Lumpur in August, with a story about 1 of her own patients. When the girl, who had a rheumatic heart, was 16, Dr. Pannikar advised the parents that she needed cardiac surgery if she were to be a healthy wife and mother. But the parents lived some distance from Dr. Pannikar's surgery and did not heed the advice. The girl was married to a carpenter from a traditional Chinese family, in which "the man is lord and master." Her new home had no piped water, and in additional to normal domestic tasks she had to carry water from a source 1 1/2 miles agay. In the 7th month of her 1st pregnancy, she went into cardiac failure. After the 3rd pregnancy and a 3rd cardiac failure, Dr. Pannikar tried to arrange a sterilization "but we could not get consent - her husband refused to turn up at the hospital." When the girl was admitted to hospital 6 months into her 4th pregnancy, Dr. Pannikar got hold of her patient's mother-in-law. "I told her if she wanted a servant in the house, it was easy to get one. But no servant would look after her grandchildren the way their mother would. I told her if she wanted to save the girl's life she had better speak to her son." During the 4th delivery, the girl went into cardiac arrest and spent 2 weeks in intensive care. The mother-in-law prevailed upon her son to at least consent, and the girl was sterilized before she left hospital. But "it was a very near thing," Dr. Pannikar recalls "and it wouldn't have happened if the husband had felt he was responsible in parenthood." The Kedah FPA makes special efforts to reach men. Dr. Pannikar herself talks to men's organizations like the Lions and Rotary Clubs, and arranges education programs for trade unions and workers on the rubber estates. She thinks women need to be told repeatedly that they have a basic human right to choose whether they want to have a baby, and when. "Women feel," she says, "that their only function is to cook, wash clothes and feed the baby. We need to tell them they have a part to play in the society of today because their children will be the citizens of tomorrow."o

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Women's autonomy in healthcare decision making: a systematic review

Idris IB, Hamis AA, Bukhori ABM, Hoong DCC, Yusop H, Shaharuddin MA, et al.

BMC Womens Health, 2023 Dec 02;23(1):643.

PMID: 38042837 DOI: 10.1186/s12905-023-02792-4

OBJECTIVES: Although there are calls for women's empowerment and gender equity globally, there are still large disparities regarding women's autonomy in healthcare decision making. The autonomy of women is believed to be crucial in improving their health-related outcomes. This review discusses factors that influence autonomy among women in healthcare decision making.

DESIGN: Systematic review.

DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were searched from 2017-2022.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: The inclusion criteria include original articles, case studies and reports that has been written in the English Language, while manuscripts with no full article, reviews, newspaper reports, grey literatures, and articles that did not answer the review objectives were excluded.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: We carried out data extraction using a standardized data extraction form, that has been organized using Microsoft Excel. A narrative synthesis was carried out to combine the findings of all included articles.

RESULTS: A total of 70 records were identified and 18 were reviewed, yielding eight articles to be included in the accepted list of studies. All studies were conducted in developing countries and most of the studies were cross sectional. Factors that were associated with women's autonomy in healthcare decision making were age, women's education and occupation, husbands'/partners' education and occupation, residential location or region of residence, household wealth index as well as culture and religion.

CONCLUSIONS: Identification of these factors may help stakeholders in improving women's autonomy in healthcare decision making. Policymakers play a crucial role in healthcare decision making by enacting laws and policies that protect women's rights, promoting gender-sensitive healthcare services, ensuring access to comprehensive information, promoting health education, and supporting vulnerable populations. These efforts ensure women's autonomy including able to access to unbiased and effective healthcare services.

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

The impact of urbanization on family structure: the experience of Sarawak, Malaysia

Sim HC

Sojourn, 2003;18(1):89-109.

PMID: 21853623

This paper argues that women and men encounter the processes of migration and urbanization in very gendered ways. It examines state development policies and their role in accelerating the pace of urbanization, Using material from a recently concluded study on single mothers in the lower socio-economic strata, this paper explores the impact of these wider processes on the structure of the family and women from this strata specifically.

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights/economics; Women's Rights/education; Women's Rights/history; Women's Rights/legislation & jurisprudence

Twenty years and counting: taking the lessons learned from ICPD to move the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda forward

Thanenthiran S

Glob Public Health, 2014;9(6):669-77.

PMID: 24921436 DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2014.920893

The women's rights movement and the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) movement have been actively involved in ensuring that the gains (on sexual and reproductive health, reproductive rights and women's sexuality) made during the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and the 1995 fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing are maintained and captured in the new development framework. International processes, especially the United Nations Population Fund's ICPD Beyond 2014 work, have proven essential platforms for this. However, the current geopolitical scenario provides a challenging environment to ensure that the comprehensive Cairo+20 agenda is given the due attention and place it deserves and requires. This article aims to articulate the critical gaps in political discourse and commitment to the ICPD agenda from 1994 to the time of ICPD beyond 2014. Governments' potential lack of commitment to crucial issues of SRHR is also examined and discussed in the first section. In the second section, the article looks at progress and gaps regarding specific and commonly used measures of SRHR as an indicator of where discourse and commitment are required. In the third section, as a follow-up to the previous one, the article discusses the need to and the possibilities of articulating and positioning the rights discourse more clearly within the current complex global discourse as a necessary step in the movement's political discourse. In the last section, some key challenges and opportunities, as well as identified recommendations, are discussed with regard to the way ahead for the SRHR agenda in the 2014 and beyond.

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

[The social status of women. For a new world order]

Gauffenic A

Tiers Monde, 1985 Apr-Jun;26(102):273-81.

PMID: 12340318

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Women in development

White EH

Aisa Found News, 1980 May-Jun.

PMID: 12261905

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

A game of three monkeys: Kadazan Dusun villagers and violence against women

Koepping E

Sojourn, 2003;18(2):279-98.

PMID: 21894631

Based on detailed and long-term anthropological research among rural Kadazans, the paper sets out the social history of domestic violence in one Sabah village. In more than 30 per cent of the households, there is a woman who has experienced repeated spousal abuse during her life. Adding those men who abused earlier spouses, and adults who lived through the abuse of their mothers in childhood, it is clear that violence is and has long been part of everyday — yet secret — village experience. For various reasons, researchers appear to have colluded in ignoring the issue. To help those women and their children whose lives are blighted by fear and fearful memories, it would be wise to assume domestic violence is as present in rural as in urban settings.

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights/education; Women's Rights/history

Malaysia: population issues remain high on agenda

CIRDAP Dev Dig, 1998 Dec.

PMID: 12322095

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Family migration and the economic status of women in Malaysia

Chattopadhyay A

Int Migr Rev, 1997;31(2):338-52.

PMID: 12292875 DOI: 10.1177%2F019791839703100204

"The impact of family migration on women's economic position in a developing country setting is an area that has received relatively little research attention. Incorporating a lifetime perspective, this study makes use of the retrospective migration histories of husbands and wives from the second round of the Malaysian Family Life Survey to estimate how joint migration with the husband affects women's socioeconomic achievement. The findings show that family migration depresses the chances of working, but it does not significantly reduce socioeconomic attainment of those who do work. However, when a woman migrates with her husband she does forgo the substantial advantage she could have derived had she moved alone."

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Reducing the impact

Mahathir M

Integration, 1997.

PMID: 12293677

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Effective IEC approaches for Asia. IEC evaluation workshop

JOICFP News, 1996 Feb.

PMID: 12290712

Matched MeSH terms: Women's Rights*

Pointers from the Americas

Aragon-choudhury P