Cambodia Counts on Women to Care, but Leadership Sits Elsewhere

Detailed summary

Women carry much of the work of caring for Cambodia’s sick, its mothers and its children, and they are praised for it. But the ...

PHNOM PENH – Women carry much of the work of caring for Cambodia’s sick, its mothers and its children, and they are praised for it. But the praise has not become higher pay, real authority, or a seat where decisions are made.

“The value of this health sector is recognized, but it remains largely at the level of rhetoric,” said Or Vandine, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health, during the Forum of Influential Women on Nov. 5 at the Royal University of Law and Economics.

The gap she described was not between women and work but between women and power. Women make up more than half of the health workforce and more than half of those delivering care services, including home delivery care.

Their involvement in local groups, though, stands at around 15 percent, while wages for caregivers and delivery attendants remain at a modest level, Vandine said.

Or Vandine was the first female Cambodian recipient of a US Fulbright Scholarship in 1994. She pointed out figures that offer two directions.

Women are 90 percent or more of participants in health initiatives and 73 percent of village health support group members as of 2022. Maternal mortality has fallen by 66 percent, while about 99 percent of pregnant women now deliver safely.

Women now hold 25 percent of senior posts such as secretary of state and undersecretary of state in the health sector, up from 18 percent, she said, adding that 55 percent of Ministry of Health civil servants are women.

By her own account, the growth in women’s leadership is not simple good news, Vandine said, adding that it has come quickly enough to cause tension and worry about whether institutions can keep up.

Although women now hold 25 percent of senior health-sector posts, that still means men hold three in four. In care work, women are the majority of the workforce, but she said wages for caregivers and delivery attendants have not risen, and the recognition of their work remains “at the level of rhetoric.”

Opening of the article, excerpted from Cambodianess. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.