Negative perceptions about self-control and identification with gender-role stereotypes related to binge eating, problem drinking, and to co-morbidity among adolescents

Purpose
To examine the role of both positive and negative styles of self-control, and gender-role stereotypes in binge eating and problem drinking.

Method
Participants were 428 adolescent boys and 555 girls from predominantly Anglo-Australian backgrounds who attended regional state schools in New South Wales, Australia. Students completed standardized questionnaires that assessed problem drinking, binge eating, self-control styles, and identification with gender-role stereotypes. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey tests were conducted to examine differences among adolescents who reported problems in binge eating, drinking, and both domains.

Results
Adolescents who reported eating and drinking problems also reported a high negative and a low positive sense of self-control coupled with self-identification with the traits that typically describe negative dimensions of gender-role stereotypes. Regardless of gender, problem drinking was mainly related to traits of negative masculinity (bossy, noisy aggressive, etc.) whereas binge eating was mainly related to negative femininity (shy, needs approval from others, etc.). Participants who reported eating and drinking symptoms recorded low scores on positive control, high scores on negative control, and also high scores on the negative dimensions of masculinity and femininity.

Summary
A negative and passive style of self-control coupled with an identification with negative dimensions of gender summarizes the type of self-regulation that is implicated in both binge eating and problem drinking, and co-morbid symptoms. There is a need for interventions working toward a more balanced gender self-concept and a positive sense of self-control.

Gender and ethics

Men and women lawyers value ethics differently, according to a study into law students' values.  About 700 final year law students responded to a questionnaire on hypothetical ethical situations which gave a snapshot understanding of the values of Australian students in their last year of law school.

The Influence of Gender and Facial Appearance on Voting Practices

Women’s faces tend to naturally retain more neonate features than men. These features, such as a greater eye height, a smaller nose area, and a wider smile, would cause women to have more immature faces than males. Interestingly, women who have these facial features are often perceived as more attractive than women with mature facial features. These findings imply that women would be judged less competent than men, and that immature-faced women would be perceived as less competent and more attractive than mature-faced females. Given the direction of political leadership in our country, this has interesting implications for females that are vying for leadership positions. Thus, our study examined the effects of both candidate gender and facial features on voting likelihood, and perceptions of attractiveness and competence, by pairing pictures with neutral party platforms.

Projections of the future path of the gender wage gap in Great Britain

Purpose – The paper attempts to project the future trend of the gender wage gap in Great Britain up to 2031.
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis utilises the British Household Panel Study Wave F together with Office for National Statistics (ONS) demographic projections. The methodology combines the ONS projections with assumptions relating to the evolution of educational attainment in order to project the future distribution of human capital skills and consequently the future size of the gender wage gap.
Findings – The analysis suggests that gender wage convergence will be slow, with little female progress by 2031 unless there is a large rise in returns to female experience.
Originality/value – The paper has projected the pattern of male and female skill acquisition together with the associated trend in wages up to 2031.

Undoing men's privilege and advancing gender equality in public sector institutions

Discrimination against women in public sector organisations has been the focus of considerable research in recent years. While much of this literature acknowledges the structural basis of gender inequality, strategies for change are often focused on anti-discrimination policies, equal employment opportunities and diversity management. Discriminatory behaviour is often individualised in these interventions and the larger systems of dominance and subordination are ignored. The flipside of gender discrimination, we argue, is the privileging of men. The lack of critical interrogation of men's privilege allows men to reinforce their dominance. In this paper we offer an account of gender inequalities and injustices in public sector institutions in terms of privilege. The paper draws on critical scholarship on men and masculinities and an emergent scholarship on men's involvement in the gender relations of workplaces and organisations, to offer both a general account of privilege and an application of this framework to the arena of public sector institutions and workplaces in general.

Omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acid imbalance early in life leads to persistant reductions in DHA levels in glycerophospholipids in rat hypothalamus even after long-term omega 3 fatty acid repletion

Failure to provide omega 3 fatty acids in the perinatal period results in alterations in nerve growth factor levels, dopamine production and  permanent elevations in blood pressure. The present study investigated whether changes in brain (i.e., hypothalamus) glycerophospholipid fatty acid profiles induced by a diet rich in omega 6 fatty acids and very low in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) during pregnancy and the perinatal period could be reversed by subsequent feeding of a diet containing ALA. Female rats (6 per group) were mated and fed either a low ALA diet or a control diet containing ALA throughout pregnancy and until weaning of the pups at 3 weeks. At weaning, the pups (20 per group) remained on the diet of their mothers until 9 weeks, when half the pups were switched onto the other diet, thus generating four groups of animals. At 33 weeks, pups were killed, the hypothalamus dissected from the male rats and analysed for glycerophospholipid fatty acids. In the animals fed the diet with very little ALA and then re-fed the control diet containing high levels of ALA for 24 weeks, the DHA levels were still significantly less than the control values in PE, PS and PI fractions, by 9%, 18% and 34%, respectively. In this group, but not in the other dietary groups, ALA was detected in all glycerophospholipid classes at 0.2–1.7% of the total fatty acids. The results suggest that omega 6–3 PUFA imbalance early in life leads to irreversible changes in hypothalamic composition. The increased ALA and reduced DHA proportions in the animals re-fed ALA in later life are consistent with a dysfunction or down-regulation of the conversion of ALA to 18:4n-3 by the delta-6 desaturase.

Gender and health promotion: A multisectoral policy approach

Women and men are different as regards their biology, the roles and responsibilities that society assigns to them and their position in the family and community. These factors have a great influence on causes, consequences and management of diseases and ill-health and on the efficacy of health promotion policies and programmes. This is confirmed by evidence on male–female differences in cause-specific mortality and morbidity and exposure to risk factors. Health promoting interventions aimed at ensuring safe and supportive environments, healthy living conditions and lifestyles, community involvement and participation, access to essential facilities and to social and health services need to address these differences between women and men, boys and girls in an equitable manner in order to be effective. The aim of this paper is to (i) demonstrate that health promotion policies that take women's and men's differential biological and social vulnerability to health risks and the unequal power relationships between the sexes into account are more likely to be successful and effective compared to policies that are not concerned with such differences, and (ii) discuss what is required to build a multisectoral policy response to gender inequities in health through health promotion and disease prevention. The requirements discussed in the paper include i) the establishment of joint commitment for policy within society through setting objectives related to gender equality and equity in health as well as health promotion, ii) an assessment and analysis of gender inequalities affecting health and determinants of health, iii) the actions needed to tackle the main determinants of those inequalities and iv) documentation and dissemination of effective and gender sensitive policy interventions to promote health. In the discussion of these key policy elements, we use illustrative examples of good practices from different countries around the world.

Projecting the U.S. gender wage gap 2000-40

This paper projects the gender wage gap for 25–64 year old Americans for the period 2000–40. The analysis uses data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID) for 1995 and 1996 together with the U.S. Census Bureau demographic projections. The method combines the population projections with assumptions regarding the evolution of educational attainment in order to first project the future distribution of skills and, based on these projections, the future size of the gender wage gap. The main set of projections suggests that changing skill characteristics—specifically educational attainment—will continue to close the gender wage gap. However, even in 2040, a substantial pay gap of at least 75 percent of the size of that in 1995 will remain.

Projecting the trend in the Canadian gender wage gap 2001-2031: will an increase in female education acquisition and commitment be enough?

The paper projects the gender wage gap for 25-64 year-olds in Canada over the period 2001-2031. The empirical analysis uses the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics together with Statistics Canada demographic projections. The methodology combines the population projections with assumptions relating to the evolution of educational attainment in order to first project the future distribution of human capital skills and, based on these projections, the future size of the gender wage gap. The projections suggest continued gender wage convergence produced by changing skills characteristics. However, a substantial pay gap will remain in 2031.

Distributions of caregiving tasks among family members: the place of gender and availability.

To extend family-oriented approaches to caregiving, participants in 2 studies were asked to distribute tasks among a set of adult children, first with information only about gender and then with systematically varied information about commitments to paid work, marriage, and/or parenting. Making the distributions, using a computer-based program, were 2 groups of older adults (ages 60 to 90 years). In Study 1, gender composition was kept constant (2 sons and 2 daughters). In Study 2, it was varied. The results showed several ways in which people combine attention to gender and to availability. The results also pointed to the need to consider both the number and type of tasks allocated. The results are discussed in terms of implications for the way caregiving is regarded, the development of multiple-factor models for variations among family members, and the possible replications and extensions to other circumstances and populations.

Gender differences and learning outcomes: does gender matter?

Student placement outcomes were examined using archival data from a field education program on the gender of both students and supervisors to test the hypothesis that gender is a predictor of placement outcome. The results of these analyses suggest that whilst the supervisor gender is not critical, the student gender is a significant predictor of placement outcome. As male students are more likely to encounter placement difficulties than female students, inquiry into the student’s concept of masculinity is proposed as a way to assist male students in field education.

Gender issues in the career development of IT professionals: a global perspective

Each period of technological change carries with it high expectations of societal and organizational restructuring that will favour the disadvantaged. The same is true for the Information and Communication Technologies. The fast expansion of the IT labour market, the need for diverse talents, the shift in the demand from technical to more general management and business skills, and the government's and employer's initiatives to improve women's representation in the IT sector created an image that? IT is one of the best-equal opportunity areas 'that provide wider opportunities for women to enter and succeed in this industry'. Nevertheless, the validity of these claims is yet to be established through empirical analysis.

Wages, career progression, training and work family policies : an integrated approach to explaining gender discrimination

While the Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) literature suggests that considerable progress has been made towards addressing gender-based discrimination (primarily through legal instruments), direct and indirece forms of discrimination persist and tend to be perpetuated through organisational practices (Tomaskovic-Devey 2001). Women are still receive less remuneration than men and are disadvantaged with respect to fundamental entitlements such as promotion and training and education. Furthermore, as more women enter employment the issue of work and family balance has become an organisational priority. There is a large body of research literature in the disciplines of economics, sociology, industrial relations, human resource management, organisational studies and public administration that examines the sources, nature and extent of gender-based discrimination in labour markets. This paper seeks to integrate this literature by taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the problem of women, EEO and discrimination. It is argued that our understanding of discrimination is greatly enhanced by theories and models that incorporate both economic and organisational explanations. Furthermore, it is argued that discrimination in terms of promotion, pay and training are endogenous. That is, the interrelationship between these variables needs to be taken into account simultaneously to accurately estimate the degree of direct and indirect discrimination that women face. The paper provides a review of the literature on the key themes of pay equity, career progression, education and training and work-family policy, and seeks to provide a synthesis of key themes. Emerging from this literature are a number of testable hypotheses. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

Gender and IT : ongoing challenges for computing and information technology education in Australian secondary education

# 1. Introduction. Exploring the gender and IT problem and possible ways forward /​ Julianne Lynch
# 2. The imagined curriculum: who studies Computing and Information Technology subjects at the senior secondary level? /​ Margaret Vickers and My Trinh Ha
# 3. A question of attention: challenges for researching the under representation of girls in Computing and Information Technology subjects /​ Leonie Rowan
# 4. The nature and purpose of Computing and Information Technology subjects in the senior secondary school curriculum in New South Wales /​ Toni Downes
# 5. The social construction of Computing and Information Technology subject subculture /​ Catherine Harris
# 6. Boy nerds, girl nerds: constituting and negotiating Computing and Information Technology and peer groups as gendered subjects in schooling /​ Kerry Robinson and Cristyn Davies
# 7. CIT teachers' cultures in a globalising world /​ Carol Reid and Jose van der Akker
# 8. Perceptions of changing pedagogies in Computing and Information Technology /​ Susanne Gannon