Violent, caring, unpredictable: Public views on survivors of brain injury

The purpose of the present work was to investigate how members of the public perceived survivors of brain injury. A twenty-item list of attributes that could be used to describe characteristics of survivors of brain injury were given to three hundred and twenty-three participants. One hundred and sixty-nine psychology students and one hundred and fifty-four members of the public agreed to take part in the study. The effects of group (student and public), gender and socioeconomic status (low, moderate and high) on the attributes were assessed. Multivariate analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups with students holding more positive perceptions on 15 out of the 20 attributes. No effects of gender or socioeconomic status were found. The research suggests that members of the public hold less positive views on survivors of brain injury in respect to intellectual competency, ability to care and trustworthiness when compared to students.

Prospects for women's legislative representation in postsocialist Europe: the views of female politicians

Research on women’s political representation in post-socialist Europe has highlighted the role of cultural and political factors in obstructing women’s access to legislative power, such as the prevalence of traditional gender stereotypes, electoral systems, and the absence of a feminist movement. Yet the role of women political elites in enhancing or hindering women’s access to political power in the region has so far remained uncharted. This article seeks to fill some of the existing gaps in this literature by examining the views of women politicians with regard to women’s political underrepresentation and their assessments of strategies for redressing this imbalance. Findings from the analysis reveal that although women politicians recognize gender inequalities in representation as a problem requiring intervention, how the problem is perceived, and the preferred measures to deal with it, is largely shaped by the social and cultural context in which these actors are embedded.