Written By: Carmen Peña
August 8, 2019
My professional life began as a community pharmacist with a pharmacy in the centre of Madrid, Spain. This was work that I really loved but I always felt I had more to offer. I soon enlisted myself in the General Pharmaceutical Council of Spain where, during 27 years, I served successively as section chairman, general secretary and president. Being the first female general secretary and president of the council, I was able to develop my viewpoints concerning women in the pharmacy profession.
I was elected vice president of FIP and during my six years I learnt about the tremendous diversity of global pharmacy and the stimulating interaction of the global players of this profession.
Then I had the honour of being elected the first woman president of FIP. The four years of my presidency were for me an opportunity to implement some of my ideas concerning women and the pharmacy workforce that I had been developing throughout my career.
During my presidency I had the good fortune to meet and band together with a group of great women pharmacists who were leaders of the profession in different parts of the world. Together we developed a reference paper which established the basis of a future FIP statement of policy, namely, “Pharmacists supporting women and responsible use of medicines: Empowering informal caregivers”.
One of the most important concerns we identified was the fact that 50% of the world´s population, i.e., women, are instinctively relied upon to take charge of the nutritional and health needs of their families. However, that 50% is under-represented because they are not empowered enough in terms of education, information and representation. A consequence of that is that women are also under-represented at the highest levels of political administrative organisations.
I need to highlight that one of the challenges and priorities described in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is the necessity to empower women. Throughout history women have been the primary informal carers of children and the ageing in all countries of the world. The expected ageing of populations and the growing need for long-term health care mean that women, as informal careers, will remain an essential asset. Healthcare systems are based in large measure on the role of women as informal careers. However, women are not always supported in that role.
Pharmacists and, in particular, community pharmacists, thanks to our accessibility not only to patients but also for people in general, are a source of information for the empowerment of women.
In my opinion the policy document being prepared by FIP´s working group concerning women will be an essential support for pharmacists and their organisations to explore initiatives and services to promote the education, information and representation of women around the world.