Audit quality: does gender composition of audit firms matter?

Using a sample of Portuguese audit firms and their client companies, this study examines the association between gender composition of the partnership structure oaudit firms and audit quality. Audit quality is measured through the earnings quality of audit clients. We find that gender diversity in the partnership structure of audit firms, per se, has no association with audit quality. In turn, we find significant evidence that a predominant presence of female Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in partner positions in audit firms is associated with higher audit quality. In particular, the results indicate that audit firms with female-dominated partnership structures are negatively related with aggressive accounting practices in audit clients.

Gender norms in Portuguese college sudents' judgments in familial homicides: bad men and mad women

The gender of the offender has been proved to be an important factor in judicial sentencing. In this study, we analyze the judgments of College students regarding perpetrators of familial homicides to evaluate the presence of these gender norms and biases in the larger society. The sample included 303 college students (54.8% female) enrolled in several social sciences and engineering courses. Participants were asked to read 12 vignettes based on real crimes taken from Portuguese newspapers. Half were related to infanticide, and half were related to intimate partner homicide. The sex of the offender was orthogonally manipulated to the type of crime. The results show that gender had an important impact on sentences, with males being more harshly penalized by reasons of perversity and women less penalized by reason of mental disorders. In addition, filicide was more heavily penalized than was intimate partner homicide. The results also revealed a tendency toward a retributive conception of punishment. We discuss how gender norms in justice seem to be embedded in society as well as the need for intervention against the punitive tendency of this population.

Caught between changing tides: Gender and kinship in Cape Verde

Gender ideologies in Cape Verde are shifting. Individuals find themselves caught between changing tides, pushed and pulled in opposite directions by divergent gendered expectations. The article examines the different ways in which young women and men take recourse to tactics in response to the tensions that arise as they deal with changing gender ascriptions in the midst of their relations with community and kin. Women, in particular, are unevenly affected by traditional demands and expectations whilst they cross the boundaries of traditional gender roles in their pursuit of enhanced education and more sexual freedom. Yet, their actions are not characterized by an outright rejection of traditional gender ideologies, but rather by piecemeal tactical manoeuvres to plot a route through the centrifugal forces at play. keywords

Facilitadores e obstáculos do empreendedorismo: o caso das muambeiras de Lubango

Dissertação de mestrado em Estudos de Gestão

Gender in focus: (new) trends in media

(Excerto) Nowadays, the public discourses about gender equality are commonly accepted in Western society. In fact, we live in an era of “equality illusion” (Banyard, 2010) because the mainstream discourses incorporate gender in the agenda, conveying the message that feminist struggles are unnecessary today. At the same time, postfeminism (McRobbie, 2004) gains importance and demonstrates the intricacies of a neoliberal, highly individualist culture that subtly imprisons the freedoms that it is supposed to grant (Gill & Scharff, 2011).

Gender and media: where do we stand today?

Nowadays, the public discourses about gender equality are commonly accepted in Western society. In fact, we live in an era of “equality illusion” (Banyard, 2010) because the mainstream discourses incorporate gender in the agenda, conveying the message that feminist struggles are unnecessary today. At the same time, postfeminism (McRobbie, 2004) gains importance and demonstrates the intricacies of a neoliberal, highly individualist culture that subtly imprisons the freedoms that it is supposed to grant (Gill & Scharff, 2011). However, back in 1978, Gaye Tuchman used the expression “symbolic annihilation” to refer to how the media represented women. The author refers to a “symbolic annihilation” because sometimes it is so hidden and subtle that it becomes difficult to perceive – and to be fought. Much has improved since then; yet a lot remains the same. Over the past decades there have been marked changes in gender relations, in feminist activism, in the (media) communication industry and in society in general (Byerly, 2013; Carter, Steiner & McLaughlin, 2015; Gallagher, 2014; Gallego, 2013; Krijnen, Álvares & Van Bauwel, 2011; Krijnen & Van Bauwel, 2015; Lobo, Silveirinha, Subtil, & Torres, 2015; Ross, 2009; Silveirinha, 2001; Van Zoonen, 1994, 2010). Now, in a globalised and media saturated world, the gendered picture is, consequently, different. The contemporary grammar is marked by diverse and complex tensions (van Zoonen, 2010).

Gender, sex and sexuality in two open access communication journals published in Portugal: a critical overview of current discursive practices

The links between gender, sex and sexuality and their relevance are theoretically and politically problematic (Richardson, 2007). One of the difficulties in understanding their interconnections is that these terms are often used differently and ambiguously by different authors (and even by the same authors). This article reports the results of an analysis of the articles published in open access communication journals with known impact factor, edited in Portugal and published between 2005 and 2012. The diverse conceptualisations of those three basic concepts and of their (inter)relationships within communication research are identified. The complexity and the intricate (and often implicit) nature of both the meanings of these categories and their relationships underlie and justify our attention and further research. What the findings suggest about the current communication research into gender issues published in the two journals surveyed is that the ‘Gender differences discourse’ (Sunderland, 2004) is the most pervasive discourse (also) in academic practice. Additionally, they show that gender and sex are mainly taken for a fact, not a question that is worth being studied. The editors of these journals, as well as the scholars submitting manuscripts, need to be more aware of the traditional nature of the theoretical and methodological choices that they make regarding gender- and sex-related issues, as well as of the relative lack of attention to sexuality as a research subject.

24-h urinary free cortisol from mid-pregnancy to 3-months postpartum: gender and parity differences and effects

Background: Pregnancy and postpartum have been associated to several physiological changes;however, empirical evidence was almost exclusively obtained in primiparous women and few studies focus on hormonal changes in men and second-time parents. The main aim of this study is to examine 24-h urinary free cortisol from mid-pregnancy to 3-months postpartum, comparing women/men and first/second-time parents.Methods: Twenty-six women and 22 men (N = 48) were recruited from an antenatal obstetric unit in Porto, Portugal. 24-h urinary free cortisol was measured at the 2nd and 3rd trimester and at 3-months postpartum. Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted, in order to analyze 24-h urinary free cortisol patterns of change over this period. Gender and parity were included in the analyses as potential modifiers, in order to compare women and men, and first-and second-time parents.Results: An increase from the 2nd to the 3rd trimester (p = .006) and a decrease from the 3rd trimester to 3-months postpartum (p = .005) were reported in all parents’ 24-h urinary free cortisol. The interaction effects for Time * Gender (p = .03) and Time * Parity (p = .02) were found. Women and first-time parents revealed higher levels, while men and second-time parents showed lower 24-h urinary free cortisol levels at the 2nd trimester than at 3-months postpartum.Conclusions: Findings appear to clarify the direction, as well as, the timing, gender and parity extension of 24-h urinary free cortisol changes from mid-pregnancy to 3-months postpartum.The same pattern of change in all parents’ 24-h urinary free cortisol from mid-pregnancy to 3-months postpartum is consistent with the proposed role of hormones in preparation to parenting.

Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: the role of parent’s gender and timing of childhood abuse

It has been suggested that being physically abused leads to someone becoming a perpetrator of abuse which could be associated to parents' gender, timing of the physical abuse and specific socio-demographic variables. This study aims to investigate the role the parents' gender, timing of childhood abuse and socio-demographic variables on the relationship between parents' history of childhood physical abuse and current risk for children. The sample consisted of 920 parents (414 fathers, 506 mothers) from the Portuguese National Representative Study of Psychosocial Context of Child Abuse and Neglect who completed the Childhood History Questionnaire and the Child Abuse Potential Inventory. The results showed that fathers had lower current potential risk of becoming physical abuse perpetrators with their children than mothers although they did not differed in their physical victimization history. Moreover, the risk was higher in parents (both genders) with continuous history of victimization than in parents without victimization. Prediction models showed that for fathers and mothers separately similar socio-demographic variables (family income, number of children at home, employment status and marital status) predicted the potential risk of becoming physical abuses perpetrators. Nevertheless, the timing of victimization was different for fathers (before 13 years old) and mothers (after 13 years old). Then our study targets specific variables (timing of physical abuse, parents' gender and specific socio-demographic variables), which may enable professionals to select groups of parents at greater need of participating in abuse prevention programs.