Re-gendering labour: class and gender determinants of New South Wales electoral behaviour 1930-32

Historians have neglected tbe impact of female enfranchisement on Australian electoral outcomes. This papers employs multivariate analysis to explore electoral behaviour in New South Wales during the Great Depression. It argues that women were less prone to support Labor than men, but that women in paid employment constituted a partial exception to this pattern. In 1932 the conservative parties significantly eroded Labor's working-class support. Part of this success was due to the ability of employers to coerce workers with the threat of dismissal. Female wage earners were particularly vulnerable to this coercion. Conservative electoral appeals recast masculinity in terms of family responsibility rather than class assertion. Conflict in the household economy possibly influenced women to vote against Labor due to its identification with the cause of male breadwinners. Overall female voting behaviour was more stable than that of men and this despite the higb profile of issues that would have been expected particularly to influence female voters.

A menace to this realm : the new guard and the New South Wales police, 1931-32

In 1931 and 1932, New South Wales faced civic collapse. During the last months of the Lang government, the semi-fascist New Guard became a serious threat to the state. This article examines the challenge posed by the New Guard to the New South Wales police, and the strategies used by the police to suppress the group. Superintendent W.J. MacKay, the colourful and Machiavellian future commissioner, effectively and ruthlessly exercised police power against the New Guard. This article disputes the dominant historical interpretation of this period, which sees the police as collaborators with a reactionary secret army, the ‘Old Guard’.

A 32 year longitudinal study of child and adolescent pathways to well-being in adulthood

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relative importance of child and adolescent social and academic pathways to well-being in adulthood (32-years) indicated by a sense of meaning, social engagement, positive coping and prosocial values. Data were drawn from a 15 wave (32-year) longitudinal study of the health and development of around 1000 New Zealanders (Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, New Zealand). Moderate continuity in social connectedness (0.38) and high continuity in academic ability (0.90) was observed across childhood and adolescence. Adolescent social connectedness was a better predictor of adult well-being than academic achievement (0.62 vs. 0.12). There was evidence of an indirect pathway from adolescent academic achievement to adult well-being through social connectedness (0.29). Indicators of well-being in adulthood appear to be better explained by social connection rather than academic competencies pathways. Implications for promoting longer term well-being during the school years are discussed.

Assessment of acute burn management in 32 low- and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether acute burn management (ABM) is available at health facilities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHOD: The study used the World Health Organization situational analysis tool (SAT) which is designed to assess emergency and essential surgical care and includes data points relevant to the acute management of burns. The SAT was available for 1413 health facilities in 59 countries. RESULTS: A majority (1036, 77.5 %) of the health facilities are able to perform ABM. The main reasons for the referral of ABM are lack of skills (53.4 %) and non-functioning equipment (52.2 %). Considering health centres and district/rural/community hospitals that referred due to lack of supplies/drugs and/or non-functioning equipment, almost half of the facilities were not able to provide continuous and consistent access to the equipment required either for resuscitation or to perform burn wound debridement. Out of the facilities that performed ABM, 379 (36.6 %) are capable of carrying out skin grafts and contracture release, which is indicative of their ability to manage full thickness burns. However the magnitude of full thickness burns managed was limited in half of these facilities, as they did not have access to a blood bank. CONCLUSION: The initial management of acute burns is generally available in LMICs, however it is constrained by the inability to perform resuscitation (19 %) and/or burn wound debridement (10 %). For more severe burns, an inability to perform skin grafting or contracture release limits definitive management of full thickness burns, whilst lack of availability to blood further compromises the treatment of major burns.