Assessment of Gender Equality and Workplace Harassment in Health Institutions of Haramaya University, Eastern Ethiopia: A Time to Question our Perception

Abstract

Making contextual gender analysis helps to design strong evidence-based institutional strategies for reversing stereotypes that are embedded in the organizational culture. Hence, an institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 401 participants to assess gender equality and workplace harassment among staff members of Haramaya University, College of Health and Medical Sciences, and Hiwot Fana Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Eastern Ethiopia from November 1 to 30, 2021. Data were collected through a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. We measured gender equality perception by indicators as a latent variable. To identify predictors of gender equality, a structural equation model fit and a coefficient of regression with 95% CI were used to report the association. Of the total participants, more than 85.5% were female, 36.7% had a bachelor’s degree, and about 56.6% were administrative staff. Only 0.5% had a managerial role. The perception of gender equality was predicted positively by political (β = .21, 95% CI: [0.10, 0.31]), institutional (β = .32, 95% CI: [0.09, 0.55]), and sociocultural (β = .18, 95% CI: [0.11, 0.26]) factors. The proportion of workplace harassment in one form of violence ranged from 15.2% to 39%. Preferring dialog to get a solution (9.7%) and the unavailability of a gender office at the hospital (7.5%) were the main reasons for not reporting acts of violence. The findings of this study fortify gender inequality in the health and medical institute of Haramaya university but these disparities were not reported by the participants. A decent workplace, free from harassment and discrimination, has to be set up by implementing the existing gender policies and by designing contextualized strategies.