Feature: Consistent struggle for gender equality still needed: Greek frontline doctor

2021-03-07 13:06:32 GMT2021-03-07 21:06:32(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

by Maria Spiliopoulou, Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities between women and men in almost all areas of life, according to a European Commission report on gender equality in the EU released ahead of the International Women's Day marked on Monday.

Olga Kosmopoulou, an infectious disease physician at the General Hospital of Nikaia, a Piraeus port suburb, witnesses this every day inside and outside the hospital, as she has told Xinhua in a recent interview.

As the only infectious disease expert in a public hospital under enormous pressure, she still sees sexism in the hospital's corridors, in the representation of women in experts' committees set up to monitor the course of the pandemic, in news reports on increasing unemployment rates for women and domestic violence.

Kosmopoulou is in charge of the unit for COVID-19 patients at the Nikaia hospital. Despite the increase in numbers of beds in intensive care units (ICUs) and the hiring of thousands of health personnel since the pandemic reached Greece a year ago, there is still huge pressure on the healthcare system.

Greece has been in a nationwide lockdown since Nov. 7, 2020, but the numbers of daily new infections, deaths and patients in ICUs remain high.

"We started with 35 beds (in August) and now we have 100 beds for COVID-19 patients and there is a discussion to further increase the number," Kosmopoulou said.

"The greatest cost now is the fear that somebody will be at risk and I will not be able to help, because I don't have all the necessary means or because there are so many patients to treat," she added.

On Friday all beds for COVID-19 cases at the General Hospital of Nikaia were occupied. There is no ICU for COVID-19 patients. The most severe cases are transferred to other hospitals.

There is still a shortage of personnel and technological means and risk of further spread of the virus as the same doctors and nurses are treating COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients and vaccinate people, she said.

"It is a war and we are fighting without thinking about tomorrow, and of course women are very good fighters. They always were," the doctor said.

Many women are at the frontline of the pandemic and shoulder an uneven load. Kosmopoulou sees colleagues, nurses, working women around her trying even harder to do their work, and take care of their husbands, kids and houses.

She still sees gender-based discrimination rising in the hierarchy as well as lower payment for women compared to men in the private sector.

"Regardless of the existing legal framework, sexism and the patriarchal perception that prevail in Greek society have not been eradicated and there is a need for a consistent, daily struggle of both women and men," the doctor said.

"Inequalities are not overthrown overnight. Equality is a challenge that concerns not only women, but all," Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the first woman elected last year in the post in the Greek state's history, said as the keynote speaker during a debate hosted in the European Parliament last week on the role of women in the fight against COVID-19, according to an e-mailed press statement issued by her office.

According to the European Commission report, the pandemic has proven to be a major challenge for gender equality. Member states recorded a surge in domestic violence.

In Greece during the first quarantine in springtime last year, calls to a special hotline quadrupled within a month from 325 in March to 1,769 in April, Maria Syrengela, Secretary General for Family Policy and Gender Equality at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Furthermore, women in the labor market were hit hard by the pandemic. In Greece, according to the latest data provided by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, in November 2020 unemployment stood at 16.2 percent of the workforce. Based on gender, 13.2 percent of men and 20 percent of women were jobless.

Finally, work-life balance pressures have increased for women due to teleworking and online schooling. Women spent, on average, 62 hours per week caring for children (compared to 36 hours for men) and 23 hours per week doing housework (15 hours for men), according to the EU report. Enditem

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