Age discrimination in the evaluation of job applicants

This study investigated the nature of age discrimination against older job applicants. One hundred fifty-six participants (102 students; 54 organization based) evaluated a hypothetical job applicant's (aged 33–66 years) work-related competences and likelihood of being hired. Applicant age affected hiring decisions for both samples where there was a preference for hiring applicants aged 42–48 years. Applicants at both the older and younger ends of the continuum were less likely to be hired, with the oldest applicants (over 54 years) being the least likely to be hired. Although the applicants' age negatively affected evaluations of their trainability and sociability, the effect of applicant age on hiring evaluations was not mediated by these work-related competencies, suggesting that age discrimination occurs via direct bias against older workers.

Interview : Women on the line

Radio Interview with Tanya Arman, on Melbourne Radio 3CR, national current affairs program focused on women, 'Women On The Line', discussing the role of gendered language in the media and sexism in Australia.

Patterns and correlates of self-reported racial discrimination among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, 2008–09: analysis of national survey data

Background
There is now considerable evidence that racism is a pernicious and enduring social problem with a wide range of detrimental outcomes for individuals, communities and societies. Although indigenous people worldwide are subjected to high levels of racism, there is a paucity of population-based, quantitative data about the factors associated with their reporting of racial discrimination, about the settings in which such discrimination takes place, and about the frequency with which it is experienced. Such information is essential in efforts to reduce both exposure to racism among indigenous people and the harms associated with such exposure.

Methods
Weighted data on self-reported racial discrimination from over 7,000 Indigenous Australian adults participating in the 2008–09 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey, a nationally representative survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, were analysed by socioeconomic, demographic and cultural factors.

Results
More than one in four respondents (27%) reported experiencing racial discrimination in the past year. Racial discrimination was most commonly reported in public (41% of those reporting any racial discrimination), legal (40%) and work (30%) settings. Among those reporting any racial discrimination, about 40% experienced this discrimination most or all of the time (as opposed to a little or some of the time) in at least one setting. Reporting of racial discrimination peaked in the 35–44 year age group and then declined. Higher reporting of racial discrimination was associated with removal from family, low trust, unemployment, having a university degree, and indicators of cultural identity and participation. Lower reporting of racial discrimination was associated with home ownership, remote residence and having relatively few Indigenous friends.

Conclusions
These data indicate that racial discrimination is commonly experienced across a wide variety of settings, with public, legal and work settings identified as particularly salient. The observed relationships, while not necessarily causal, help to build a detailed picture of self-reported racial discrimination experienced by Indigenous people in contemporary Australia, providing important evidence to inform anti-racism policy.

Depression, anxiety and metabolic syndrome in farm men and women

This research found that Depression was associated with the development of metabolic syndrome, whilst both Depression and Anxiety are associated with the maintenance of metabolic syndrome in Farm men and women. Future interventions in metabolic syndrome should consider screening for and treating these psychological factors to improve health outcomes.

Jill Meagher CCTV gothic tendencies in narratives of violence and gender justice

This article initiates an encounter, for feminist media studies, with some of theevidentiary artefacts appropriated for public consumption from the Jill Meagher rape andmurder case. While Jill Meagher was abducted, raped and killed on September 22, 2012, in Melbourne, Australia, the story of her violent death traverses time and place.

Supporting working parents: findings from the AHRC’s national inquiry into the prevalence of pregnancy and return to work discrimination in the workplace

In July 2014 the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released the findings of its national review into pregnancy and return to work discrimination in the workplace1 which it conducted following a request from the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.2 The review comes 15 years after the commission’s first inquiry into pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.3Federal law has prohibited pregnancy discrimination in the workplace since the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA) came into force.4 It is now unlawful in every state and territory.5 Discrimination on the basis of breastfeeding and family or carer’s responsibilities is also prohibited.6 Since 2009 the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) has prohibited workplace discrimination based on pregnancy and family or carer’s responsibilities7 and the Act gives employees additional entitlements relating to their parental and caring responsibilities. Male and female employees who are the primary caregiver for a child are entitled to 12 months unpaid parental leave upon the birth or adoption of the child and can request an additional 12 months leave.8 Upon returning to work, they can request flexible working conditions9 and they are protected from adverse action, such as dismissal, for exercising these rights.10 Yet despite these legal protections, the findings of the national review show that employees continue to experience discrimination during pregnancy, when taking parental leave and upon re-entering the workforce. This note presents the main findings from the surveys and consultations that were held with employers and employees as part of the review and the review’s recommendations for addressing the prevalence of what it terms ‘pregnancy/return to work discrimination’.

Odour-based discrimination of subspecies, species and sexes in an avian species complex, the crimson rosella

Olfaction is an ancient sensory capability, and yet while it is now widely recognized that birds have olfactory mechanisms, use of the sense within a social context has been largely overlooked. In our study, we aimed to determine, for the first time, whether plumage odour may contribute to avian subspecies discrimination. We used a species complex, the crimson rosella, Platycercus elegans, which exhibits large geographical and phenotypic differences. Across 2 years in a wild population of P.elegans elegans we tested whether females at the nest could: (1) discriminate odours of conspecifics; (2) discriminate odours of subspecies; (3) discriminate odours of sexes of conspecifics; and (4) habituate at different rates to odour treatments. We found that female response differed between odours of feathers of consubspecifics, heterosubspecifics, heterospecific controls and sham controls and between odours of sexes of conspecifics. Across all odour treatments, we found habituation to the odour and the rate of habituation differed between odour treatments. Our results indicate that P.e. elegans females are able to discriminate conspecifics, consubspecifics and sexes based on plumage odour. To our knowledge, this is the first work to show that birds of a certain subspecies can discriminate the odour of its own subspecies from that of other subspecies. Our findings suggest that olfaction in birds may play a larger role than hitherto considered, and may even act as a signal to maintain or promote population divergence. © 2014 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Discriminação salarial por cor e gênero revisitada: uma abordagem de decomposição contrafactual utilizando regressões quantílicas

A desigualdade salarial, especialmente a resultante da discriminação contra negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho, é um componente importante da elevada concentração de renda da economia brasileira. Ao contrário da grande maioria dos trabalhos já desenvolvidos nesta área, este trabalho não adota a hipótese de que os efeitos de atributos determinantes do salário são constantes e idênticos para os indivíduos ao longo da distribuição de renda. São estimadas as estruturas salariais para cada percentil da distribuição salarial para homens brancos, homens negros, mulheres brancas e mulheres negras utilizando a técnica de decomposição contrafactual por regressões quantílicas, proposta por Koenker e Bassett (1978) e desenvolvida por Machado e Mata (2004). Isto proporciona uma compreensão mais detalhada e abrangente dos fatores que determinam a remuneração do trabalho para diferentes níveis de renda e fornece uma medida mais completa do grau de discriminação contra os negros e mulheres no mercado de trabalho ao longo da distribuição salarial. Para os três grupos, a discriminação é crescente em relação à posição na distribuição salarial, indicando a dificuldade de se atingir posições melhor remuneradas no mercado de trabalho por parte de mulheres e negros. A discriminação afeta principalmente as mulheres negras, seguidas das mulheres brancas e dos homens negros. Para os homens negros, a discriminação é baixa entre os mais pobres e cresce nos níveis mais altos da distribuição. As mulheres brancas sofrem ao longo de toda a distribuição com maior efeito entre os 15% mais ricos. As mulheres negras sofrem com a discriminação por cor e gênero, estando assim na pior situação entre os grupos. A remuneração da educação estimada para os quatro grupos indica ganhos crescentes conforme a posição na distribuição salarial ampliando a desigualdade salarial intra-grupo, adicionalmente, observa-se uma desvalorização da educação dos negros de ambos os sexos na determinação salarial e que as mulheres sofrem algum tipo de discriminação no que diz respeito à educação apenas nos níveis salariais mais elevados. Os ganhos salariais obtidos com a equalização da escolaridade e formalização entre os grupos discriminados e os homens brancos indicam que, no caso da educação, homens e mulheres negros teriam ganhos ao longo de toda a distribuição, com ênfase entre os mais ricos. Para a formalização, a população nos decis inferiores da distribuição salarial seria a principal beneficiada.

Implicações do odor na percepção e escolha de parceiro

Why are we attracted to some people but not to other ones? How is this attraction established? Which signs are characteristic of a good partner? These and many other questions concerning how mate attraction and mate selection work out among humans have been intriguing behavioral scientists. It is well-known that beauty indicates something about a potential mate s health. The odor may indicate a similar assessment, if we can assess how pheromones are integrated into human sexual behavior. However, what is the relation between age preference and body scent evaluation? In order to investigate this question, this study´s objective was identifying evidences which show that olfactory cues might reveal the potential mate s age and that it coincides with the ideal mate s profile. To produce the stimuli, men and women had to wear cotton t-shirts for three nights in order to have their body odor impregnated. After that, opposite-sex individuals evaluated the intensity and attractivity of these odor impregnated tshirts according to two Likert scales (4 points scale for intensity; 7 points scale for attractivity). We found differences between men and women on body scent perception, that indicates a better scent discrimination for women when it concerns the perception of potential mate s age. Another finding was the negative correlation between intensity and attractiveness perception for both sexes. We also verified that mate selection strategies are plural, more than one tactic simultaneously fitting in the same strategy, but all of them are related to differential investment of each sex on their own reproductive success

Mulher não vale nem um real : patriarcado nas letras das músicas de forró

Patriarchy is a dominating system that establishes male power in social relations as the social-ideological system and the structuring element of several ways of men‟s domination on gender social relations, on organization of social life, on private relations, and on political decision spaces. In this study we enlarge our reflection about patriarchy from the analysis of Forró lyrics, more specifically the variation known as stylized. Of late decades, it is a kind of music that has been receiving a large acceptance all over the national territory, making use of everyday expressions that propagate and make apology to many forms of discrimination, oppression and violence against women. We emphasize that over this study 14 Forró lyrics were analyzed of different styles besides stylized, like the traditional and the double meaning ones. However, we dwelled on the content analysis, particularly in three Stylized Forró lyrics, they are: Tapa na Cara (2008) by Saia Rodada Band; Mulher Roleira (2004), Aviões do Forró Band; and Bomba no Cabaré (2007), Matruz com Leite Band. In order to make a critical analysis of the elements in the lyrics content, we support ourselves on the theoretic-methodological references of the dialectical materialism, a method that allowed us to get closer to the totality of the reality that includes the popular involvement of the analyzed lyrics in a qualitative way. In that sense, we hold onto the theoretic-methodological categories: gender social relations, patriarchy, violence against women, ideology and cultural industry. As from the lyrics compilation, they were arranged by theme, we classified and analyzed the content, which allowed us to comprehend the messages in the lyrics, beyond the text shows at first sight. Today, there are many mechanisms of propagation and perpetuation of patriarchal ideology. A very relevant mechanism of this phenomenon is the sexual violence. The violence against women is a form to propagate and keep sexism, which may occur in different ways, like physical, psychological, sexual, patrimonial and social. Through our study we established that the propagation of the violence against women as being something natural and banal, giving reinforcement to the asymmetric construction of gender relations that priorizes male to the detriment of female. This banalization is perhaps, one of the strongest allies of this phenomenon‟s perpetuation, that affects women all over the world from different social classes

Medidas contraceptivas e de proteção da transmissão do HIV por mulheres com HIV/Aids

OBJETIVO: Atualmente, entre as mulheres, a relação sexual é a forma de transmissão que mais tem contribuído para a feminização da epidemia de HIV/Aids. Na busca constante de se estabelecer padrões mais adequados de orientação para saúde, investigou-se o uso de medidas contraceptivas, que também sirvam de proteção da transmissão do HIV, entre mulheres portadoras de HIV/Aids. MÉTODOS: Estudo exploratório desenvolvido em um serviço público ambulatorial de um hospital universitário, referência aos portadores de HIV/Aids da região centro-sul do Estado de São Paulo, no período de cinco meses (2000 a 2001). Foram estudadas 73 mulheres portadoras da infecção pelo HIV, ou com Aids. Os dados foram obtidos por meio de um formulário que investigava a caracterização sociodemográfica, as formas de anticoncepção utilizada e a situação sorológica do parceiro sexual. Os dados foram analisados descritivamente e os conteúdos das respostas abertas, agrupados em temas. Foi aplicado o teste exato de Fisher para análise de algumas variáveis, em nível de 5%. Para a análise de conteúdo utilizou-se a proposta de Bardin. RESULTADOS: A maioria das mulheres estava em fase de vida reprodutiva, eram casadas e foram contaminadas quase exclusivamente por meio da relação heterossexual. Entre elas, 35,4% referiam parceiro sexual discordante quanto à sorologia anti-HIV, e 13,7% utilizavam formas inadequadas de anticoncepção que também não protegiam da transmissão do HIV. CONCLUSÕES: Os resultados alertam para a necessidade de ações educativas continuadas quanto a experiências sexuais mais seguras entre portadoras de HIV/Aids, para que elas possam discutir com seus parceiros outras formas de exercerem sua sexualidade, sendo capazes de estabelecer opção contraceptiva mais consciente, de maneira a zelar pela sua saúde, do parceiro e até do concepto.