Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

1. Background

2. Gender and mental health in the Arab world

3. Women’s mental health services in Qatar

4. Developments following the steering committee report submission

5. Future directions

Declarations of conflict of interest

Author contributions

Financial disclosure

Acknowledgements

Data Availability

References

Abstract

Investigations into gender differences in the epidemiology of common mental disorders have highlighted the fundamental role of socio-economic factors as the key determinants in experiencing mental ill health and access to treatment. Women are almost always at a socio-economic disadvantage across cultures throughout the world and as a result experience mental health inequality. This disparity in control over their socio-economic determinants is even more stark in the Middle Eastern and North African region. This region has additionally also cultural and legal conditions that make women empowerment and access to health difficult. Qatar launched an ambitious National Health Strategic program and identified women’s mental health as a priority. This paper describes the development of a gender aware mental health service in Qatar, first of its kind in the region. It describes the challenges that exist in the region when attempting to develop such a service and some challenges that are unique to Qatar. This paper sets out a template of important principles that will be valuable for countries in the MENA region and beyond to develop evidence-based gender aware service that focuses on female empowerment and better mental health outcomes.

1. Background

Epidemiological data from across the world have reiterated that there exists a gender-based difference in mental health morbidity between men and women (Kessler et al., 1995; Leibenluft, 1999). From a summary of evidence in an epidemiological review by, Weissman and Klerman (1977) showing higher prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders among women, these findings have been replicated by subsequent community based epidemiological studies over the subsequent decades (Weissman et al., 1996, Kessler et al., 2005; Piccinelli and Gomez Homen, 1997).

However, studies conducted in societies or groups with socially homogenous gender roles and empowerment did not always support these findings (Egeland and Hostetter, 1983; Jenkins, 1985; Loewenthal et al., 1995). More specifically, these studies underlined the role of social factors underpinning these differences rather than the traditionally understood genetic basis (Parker and Brotchie, 2010). Over time, accumulating evidence for a social model as the variable that explains gender differences came to be seen as the only viable framework within which the evidence could be properly examined (Pan American Health Organization, 1995; World Health Organization, 1998).

It has been increasingly recognized that gender determines how the individual will interact with, have access to and have control over the socio-environmental determinants of mental health with the women universally having less control and access (WHO, 2000). The social position of women and their economic condition tends to be different from men and varies across the countries and has been shown to impact mental health (WHO, 2000). States economic policies and access to resources including those of health vary according to gender and most countries have their Gender Development Indices (GDI) lower for women than men (United Nations Women white paper 2018).

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

acknowledgements

References

Abstract

Introduction
Tamil Nadu administers intravenous iron sucrose for correcting moderate anaemia among pregnant women (Haemoglobin level 7–8.9 g/dl) based on preliminary studies. We did a cross-sectional study to estimate compliance level and that of factors associated with intravenous iron sucrose treatment for moderate anaemia among pregnant women attending health facilities of Kancheepuram health district, Tamil Nadu, India, 2017.

Methods
We needed five pregnant women of 20–30 weeks from 70 clusters (health subcentres) for the assumptions of 64% compliance, 7% absolute precision, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) and a design effect of two. We collected data on knowledge and experience with iron sucrose treatment and reasons for non-compliance. We abstracted haemoglobin levels and administered doses from records. We computed compliance level (%) with 95% CI and estimated adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for non-compliance through logistic regression analysis.

Results
The median age of 350 women was 24 years (Range = 22 to 26). Compliance level to intravenous iron sucrose was 79% (95% CI: 73 to 84). Non-compliance was more likely among women aged 25–35 years (AOR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.2 to 3.7), primi (AOR: 2.2’ 95% CI: 1.2 to 3.8) and not received treatment information (AOR: 3.1, 95% CI: 1.1 to 8.8). Major reasons for non-compliance were lack of information about treatment, belief that food was better than injections and that injections could harm the baby.

Conclusions
The compliance to intravenous iron sucrose was insufficient. Providing clear information about intravenous iron sucrose to moderately anaemic pregnant women could increase the compliance to intravenous iron sucrose.

1. Introduction

Anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency disorder of pregnancy. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated global prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women of 15–45 years as 38% in 2011.1 Prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women in South East Asian region (as defined by WHO Regions) is 49%, which is the highest among all the regions in the world.1 In India, the prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women is 54%, which is the highest prevalence in the South East Asian region.1 Prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women in Tamil Nadu is 44%.2

Anaemia during pregnancy will lead to poor maternal and perinatal outcomes. Anaemic pregnant women have a two-fold increase of preterm deliveries, higher incidences of low birth weight, postpartum haemorrhage and puerperal sepsis.3 The babies born to anaemic women have a higher incidence of intensive care unit (NICU) admissions, hyperbilirubinemia, respiratory distress syndrome, neonatal seizures, birth asphyxia and neonatal sepsis.3 According to the ministry of women and child development under Government of India, 20% of maternal deaths in India are due to anaemia and India contributes to half of the global maternal deaths due to anaemia.4

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Literature review

Methods

Results

Discussion

Limitations of the work

Conclusion

Funding statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

References

Abstract

The Syrian crisis has resulted in a large refugee movement of Syrian citizens from inside Syria, to countries of safety/asylum, notably Turkey. It is estimated that there are approximately 1.7 million Syrian women refugees in Turkey. This research uses Freire’s framing of oppressors and facilitators in education to looks at how the war has impacted on the education of women their country of safety/asylum. Interviews were conducted with 24 refugee women, and the findings presented to a user focus group of Syrian refugee women. Findings indicate that language and finance are key barriers to women fulfilling their educational potential. Changes in the roles of women in countries of safety/asylum are key opportunities that could be exploited by women. Findings also indicated that non-government organisations must co-design educational provision with refugees in order to ensure that opportunities are maximised.

Introduction

With the continuation of the Syrian crisis, which started in 2011 and is now entering its tenth year, one of the significant effects of this crisis has been the large refugee movement of Syrian citizens from inside Syria, to countries of safety/asylum. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees statistics indicate that about 3.6 million Syrian refugees are presently in Turkey (DGMM, 2020), of which 1.7 million are women (UNHCR, 2016). Refugees are mainly distributed throughout 12 southern Turkish states (Ministry of Interior, Directorate General of Migration Management, 2020).

This manuscript will report in a research project that aims to examine what affect the war has had on refugee women from Syria. Data will be gathered using interviews and user focus groups. We will explore what facilitators and oppressors, have action on refugee women. We will explore what this group think about non-government organisation (NGO) and government, provision and how that can be optimised to cater to their needs. The work will use a theoretical frame of Freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed examining and exploring issues of language, displacement, the wider, and often changing, role of refugee women in Syrian society and finance.

Introduction

Participants and methods

Results and discussion

Conclusion

References

Abstract

Objective
To determine the potential and limitations of Primary Health Care professionals to identify situations of violence against women.
Location
A municipality of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Design
Descriptive and exploratory study with a qualitative approach.
Participants
Twenty-one health professionals of three Family Health Strategy units, as well as one Basic Health Unit. The inclusion criterion consisted of being a health worker in these services. The exclusion criterion was to be absent from work by any kind type license during the period of data production.
Method
The technique used to produce data was individual, semi-structured, interviews in order to collect sociodemographic data and the monitoring by professionals related to the potentials and limitations to identify violence situations. The data collection was suspended based on the saturation criterion. The data were systematized and analyzed by the content analysis technique, according to the analytical categories of health care network and gender.
Results
The potential to identify themes were: professional experience, receptive atmosphere, bonding, and listening to the reports of women, children and/or neighbors and observing their behavior; to identify the lesions; prenatal consultations; and home visits. As to the limitations: silence, denial/non-recognition of violence, lack of complaints by women; fear and guilt; flaws and unpreparedness of the health team; and fear due to the presence of aggressor.
Conclusions
It is urgent to recognize the potential of Primary Care and to promote the qualification of professionals in order to identify the situation among visible and invisible complaints, leading to the confrontation of violence.

Introduction

Violence against women is a kind violation of human rights that affect women from all over the world, presenting a high prevalence and impact on health services. It is defined as every act of violence against women that cause physical, psychological and sexual suffering, as well threats and deprivation of freedom. It is permeated and determined by gender issues and has as intrinsic component the divergences between sexes, and it represents the social relations of power and the different roles of men and women. It is estimated that 30% of women around the world have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Studies point to the consequences of violence to women’s health. As for mental health, they point to psychiatric problems, such as depressive disorders, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, somatoform and personality disorder. Also, the use of licit and illicit substances and psychotropic and analgesic medication. Sleep-related disorders, improper feeding, body aches, bruises, low self-esteem and panic syndrome are also presented by these women. In this context, the health sector has fundamental assignments in the intersectoral response to the violence against women as well the identification the kind of violence, a prerequisite for providing immediate care and conducting referrals to specialized services. So, it is important that attention to women’s health in situation of violence occur in the Health Care Network (HCN), which is a network of organizations that provides or makes arrangements to offer equitable and integral health services to a specific population.

Sexual violence against women is considered a gender specific human rights violation, and is a form of discrimination that continues women‟s subordination and patriarchal structures throughout all levels of society. Recognizing the high number of sexual violence against women, there is increasing emphasis on addressing the rights of women in Bangladesh. Following this, the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors of sexual violence against women in Bangladesh. Moreover, the study outlines the barriers of women to access in the current justice system. Finally, the paper demonstrates the social and psychological impact of the victims of sexual violence. To conduct this study, I have reviewed relevant articles, books, statistics, reports and other related literature situated within the framework of my subject. In order to analyze the data, I employed qualitative methods and thematic analysis techniques and I applied a radical feminists‟ theoretical lens. Among the main findings, the study finds that patriarchal social structure, forced marriage, cultural practice, barriers in access to justice are the main factors of sexual violence in Bangladesh.

Introduction and background

Sexual violence against women and girls is not confined to any icular political or economic system, but it prevalent in every society in the world. It cuts across boundaries of wealth, race, and culture and an expression of historically and culturally specific values and standards which are today still executed through many social and political institutions that stimulate discrimination against women and girls. According to United Nations (2014), up to 7 in 10 women around the world experience physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime. Rates of sexual violence are difficult to establish because in many societies sexual violence remains an issue of deep shame for women and often their families. According to the World Health Organization (2014), the proportion of women suffering sexual violence by non – ners after the age of 15 varies from less than 1 percent in Ethiopia and Bangladesh to between 10 and 12 percent in Peru, Samoa and the United Republic of Tanzania. Along with other forms of violence against women, sexual violence against women is a widespread and grave problem in Bangladesh.

1- Introduction

2- Methods

3- Results

4- Discussion

References

Abstract

Purpose: Leadership characteristics and career development of women in a health sciences university in Saudi Arabia was investigated. This was also extended to leadership authenticity of women graduated from a master’s in medical education (MME) program.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, A self-administrated authentic leadership questionnaire (ALQ) was utilized where the data were collected at three campuses of a health sciences university. Results: The study sample consisted of 71 MME graduates and 75 academic leaders. Women represented 42.25% of the MME graduates, with an average age of 41.04 (±5.49) years. Among MME graduates, there were 17 (56.67%) women holding the positions of deans, associate deans, or assistant deans compared with 14 men (34.16%) with a p value of 0.59. There were fourteen (46.67%) women holding Doctor of Philosophy compared with 19 men (46.34%) either holding a clinical fellowship of a master’s degree. There were no significant differences between the scores of women and men in the four ALQ domains. Among academic leaders. twenty (26.67%) women were academic leaders with an average age of 47.31 (±9.63) years; compared with 55 men (p ¼ 0.53). Twelve (60.00%) women leaders were from professions other than medicine with a p value of 0.07. Seventeen (85.00%) women were appointed at a middle management position; compared with 43 (78.18%) men with a p value of 0.16. Women showed tendency for higher scores in all ALQ domains; however, it did not reach statistical significance.
Discussion: Women received opportunities to be enrolled in the MME program and the authenticity of their academic leadership skills did not significantly differ from men. Women accounted for a quarter of academic leaders, with more appointments in middle management positions and a tendency toward a better authenticity of leadership skills.

Introduction

The effect of gender on leadership ability and career development is an interesting area of leadership studies as women remain underrepresented as leaders in multiple settings Although the earnings of women have increased more than those of men in the United States of America (USA) over the past two decades, women working full time still earn less than their male colleagues.The illegalization of inequality between women and men has improved the opportunities of women in many fields; including education and training. However, gender equality in academia is hindered by the complexity of the work environment. Women with academic careers experience disconnect between the attainment of doctoral degrees and career development. The career progress of women academic leaders is slower than that of their male colleagues. This global issue may reflect the restriction of women’s access to career development. Data regarding women academic leadership in Saudi Arabia are scant and conflicting. Although a study by Al-Tamimi reported that women have equal opportunities to study, they do not progress well in academia for reasons such as family responsibilities and social restraints. To promote academic leadership, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, established a master’s in medical education (MME) with the aim of preparing professionals to become educators and academic leaders.

THE DOMESTIC APPLICATION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS: WOMEN VICTIMS’ EXPERIENCES IN APPLICATIONS FOR CONTACT IN THE FAMILY COURTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES

THE RESEARCH PROJECT – DESCRIPTION, METHODOLOGY AND OUTCOMES

Experiences of abuse

Raising the abuse and fact-finding hearings

The use of human rights

Gender differences in the use of human rights

Judicial failures – keeping women safe

Judicial failures – discriminatory practices

THEORISING THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE IN THE FAMILY COURTS – PERFORMATIVITY

Achieving performativity – the women’s movement and international human rights law

From the international to the local – non-performativity of the human rights of victims of domestic abuse in the family courts in England

INTRODUCTION

There are a number of definitions of domestic abuse in use across a variety of legal and policy contexts. Before embarking on any analysis concerning domestic abuse it is therefore important to set out which definition is to be employed. In England and Wales, there is currently no statutory definition of domestic violence,1 however, there is a non-statutory cross-government definition. It is:

any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. This can encompass but is not limited to the following types of abuse: psychological; physical; sexual; financial; emotional.

Controlling behaviour is further defined as ‘a range of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape and regulating their everyday behaviour.’ Whereas coercive behaviour is ‘an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.

Introduction

Carter and women’s issues in the White House

Carter and the religious right

Religion and gender: beyond the White House

Rights without power

Conclusion

Abstract

Since 2009, former US President Jimmy Carter has been outspoken in his condemnation of abuses of women around the world. This appears to be a departure from his stance while in the White House (1977–1981), when many feminist groups criticized him for his lack of effort on women’s issues. This paper analyzes the historical record and Carter’s own writing to compare his work since 2009 with his position on women’s issues during his presidency. I argue that although women’s issues have become a higher priority for Carter, his approach still has much in common with attitudes that that angered feminists in the 1970s, including an emphasis on the morality of male leaders – rather than the actions of feminist women – as the means to improve women’s lives. What has changed since the 1970s, however, are his views on religious leaders. While in the White House he courted the support of evangelicals, despite their opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and other feminist policies; in the intervening years he has come to view conservative religious leaders as barriers to women’s rights. The views of Zainah Anwar and other Islamic feminists are foundational in Carter’s new approach to religion and women’s rights.

Introduction

James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, a moderate Democrat from the southern state of Georgia, was the 39th president of the United States. During his four years in the White House (1977–1981) Carter had an uneven – and at times contentious – relationship with the US women’s movement. During his campaign he courted feminist organizations and pledged support for their agenda, especially the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). But by his unsuccessful 1980 reelection campaign, feminists were divided about the president. Some praised Carter for progress on women’s issues, including the record high number of female appointees (e.g. King, 1980). Others were deeply critical of his performance. The executive board of the National Organization for Women (NOW) voted not to endorse Carter’s re-election race against Ronald Reagan, claiming Carter’s support for women was “more illusion than reality, more lip service than performance” (Kelber, 1980, 626). Nor did Carter himself claim progress on women’s issues as part of his legacy. In Keeping faith, his (1982) White House memoir, his only mention of his support for the ERA is buried a list of evangelical and conservative criticisms of him, a far cry from his campaign promises to be a leader in the fight for women’s rights.

In the light of this history, Carter’s more recent bold statements on women are unexpected and merit further analysis. In his 2014 book, A call to action: Women, religion, violence and power, Carter condemns the human rights abuses of women around the world, and in 2015 he announced that fighting violence and injustice against girls and women was “the highest priority for the rest of my life” (Botelho, 2015). The central focus of the book is the culture of violence that keeps women and girls from exercising their full rights, a focus that is in line with his longstanding commitment to human rights. The book and his more recent work also are in line with some approaches that earned him the criticism of feminists in the 1970s. In particular, Carter’s approach to women in both eras has emphasized the morality of individual male leaders as protectors of women, rather than challenging gendered power relations and supporting women’s movements.

Making is a playful exploration of tools and materials to design personally meaningful artifacts, providing a particularly impactful entry point for traditionally underrepresented youth in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, it remains unclear how these constructionist explorations translate to eventual professional and educational STEM opportunities, especially for women. This paper tracks an exemplary case in a makerspace to theorize, describe, and analyze the behavioral patterns of young women as they engage in making and move toward expertise in STEM. Building on a material-based and constructionist notion of making, we use mediated discourse analysis to examine how recognition (materialized in artifacts as displaying, legitimizing, and circulating emergent STEM expertise) leads to transformational development over time. We introduce the notion of tinkering with development, which conceptualizes playful project design, spatial project placements, and emergent online project sharing as drivers of human developmental trajectories. Implications of this work include a set of design principles to support makerspaces and other constructionist learning environments to foster participation in STEM. Further, implications for constructionist theory and STEM gender representation are discussed.

Among the hustle and bustle of a digital filmmaking course, a few youth crowded around an artifact that was pushed against a wall in the urban youth-serving makerspace: a digital jukebox piano, a technologyaugmented player piano that played pop songs and lit up an LED light strip when users pressed keys. The artifact was constructed out of an upright piano similar to those commonly found in schools and was covered in black chalkboard paint that featured drawings of the White House and the US flag. Other emerging technologies were layered on the jukebox piano (see graphical abstract). Most centrally, a Makey Makey computational breakout board adorned the top center and an LED strip was taped along the piano’s fallboard. The Makey Makey board and the LED strip were connected to the copper tape-covered piano keys by the visible wires and alligator clips typically used in prototyping. Inside the piano box, copper tape was precariously soldered to the alligator clips, and a bunched up white shirt was placed on top of unused keys to prevent them from sounding notes. When turned on, the screen that was mounted onto the piano’s musical board displayed songs that anyone could play by pressing individual piano keys. Once selected, the LED strip lit up to the rhythm of the music. A small, neatly written card on the upper-left corner read the artifact’s name and the name of its maker: Sierra,1 a 15-year-old aspiring photographer who was one of the first female participants at the makerspace who had little interest in electronic tinkering when first joining the program. This lack of interest shifted into a desire to study electronic engineering in college. In what ways did the construction and placement of the digital jukebox piano change in impact Sierra’s developmental trajectory?

Women’s entrepreneurship is at the forefront of what matters in contemporary issues and incentive policies. Gaining competitive advantage is also important in terms of factors such as women’s development, economic growth and social equilibrium. Positive discrimination towards women’s entrepreneurship processes plays an important role in raising employment rates. The evaluation of entrepreneurship from a different point of view, reveals the necessity of investigating the factors that affect women’s entrepreneurship. In this study, the factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship were aimed to examine through comprehensive literature review, and factors affecting and limiting women’s entrepreneurship were tried to be determined using Mixed-Method Evaluation Design. In this framework, the reasons for entrepreneurship for women and the factors that affect or prevent the development of women’s entrepreneurship are covered. The research was carried out by 132 women entrepreneurs operating in the province of Adana in Turkey. Data were gathered through data collection form where quantitative and qualitative data were obtained using face-to-face interview method. While Freedom and great independence (financial and others) is defined as pull factor (n:5) in the literature, it is mostly expressed as push factor (n:8) in this research. The results show that there is a positive and significant correlation between push and balance factors (r:,507), pull and emotional factors (r:,494), emotinal and push factors (r:,494), emotional and balance factors (r:,488), pull and push factors (r:,317), pull and balance factors (r:,265). In addition, according to the results of the interview, the factors affecting women’s entrepreneurship and the factors other than the factors mentioned in the questionnaire were investigated; “Hold on to the life by oneself” is a balance factor (n:3), “Prove oneself” is a push factor (n:7), “self-confidence” is an emotional factor (n:4), “children” is a push factor (n:2), “justice” is both pull (n:1) and push factor (n:1), “innovation” is a pull factor (n:1), “mobbing” is an emotional factor (n:2) and “dream” is both pull (n:1) and emotional factor (n:1).

Introduction

The concept of women entrepreneurship should be conceptualized in accordance with its aim. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the academic point of view of women and especially women entrepreneur is free from feminine characteristics. Women have an important place in the world population. In the world where male dominant business culture is prevalent, the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing rapidly. Government grants, households have become a structure that is moving away from the elementary family, leading women to gain economic freedom (Robinson, Blockson, & Robinson, 2007). The woman’s perception of being a housewife left her place to the idea of being a successful individual in business life. Today, from this approach, within the concept of equality, women’s idea of freedom makes a positive contribution to the business life (Nickels, McHugh, & McHugh, 2005). With this study, factors that affect the business life of women entrepreneurs have been tried to be determined.

This paper examines the emergence of digital entrepreneurship in the context of emerging economies. Given that these economies generally lack a well-developed institutional framework, we draw on the concept of institutional voids as our theoretical lens. We argue that digital entrepreneurship facilitates the navigation and bridging of socio-cultural institutional voids but also provides opportunities for entrepreneurs to directly and indirectly alter the existing institutional context. We illustrate these arguments by drawing upon six biographical narrations of female digital entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, through our development of a multi-level model, we make explicit the two-way causal interaction between entrepreneurial action, institution altering behaviour and the social and cultural context, thus providing a framework for future research.

Introduction

Institutional voids emerge when there is a complete lack of, or underdeveloped, institutional framework to support entrepreneurship (Elert and Henrekson, 2017). The presence of institutional voids is apparent in limited policies, infrastructural supports or an unsupportive culture, which act to constrain entrepreneurial processes and outcomes (Bruton et al., 2010; Spigel and Harrison, 2018). Such institutional voids are common in emerging economies characterised by newly established commercial practices and social norms (Manolova et al., 2006). Prior studies have highlighted the need for supportive policies and infrastructure to promote and enable entrepreneurship (Giacomin et al., 2011). However, the impact of social and cultural practices on entrepreneurship remains underexplored. Culture is defined as patterns of thinking, feeling and acting which are learned and shared by others (Hofstede, 2001). It impacts entrepreneurship by defining who is deemed socially ‘legitimate’ as an entrepreneur and thus facilitates the development of pro-entrepreneurial values and patterns of thinking (Krueger et al., 2013). For instance, Marlow and McAdam (2015) argue that in societies where social norms associate entrepreneurial activity with masculinity, female entrepreneurs lack legitimacy which may subsequently reduce their access to resources. Krueger et al. (2013:704) argue that ‘how’ and ‘why’ cultural practices, and underlying values and norms, matter for entrepreneurial action remains underexplored and requires greater empirical attention.

Introduction

Key frameworks

Investigating violence against women with disability

Discussion

Conclusion

References

Abstract

This article explores attacks by neighbours and/or members of local communities on women with disability as a form of hate crime and, more specifically, targeted violence. We draw on interviews conducted in 2017 with women with disability living in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. These women spoke about ongoing experiences of physical, sexual, psychological, emotional and financial violence perpetrated by members of their local communities. They stressed the severity of this violence, the impact on their security and feelings of safety, and barriers to accessing justice. These women faced both disbelief and police indifference after reporting. Their experiences convey how they met with prejudice that casts the lives of people with disability as less worthy, and the effects of a hatred/vulnerability dichotomy that ultimately limits adequate responses. In the absence of a shared understanding of these crimes, disablist norms prevail, exposing women to ongoing violence and limiting access to justice.

Introduction

This article explores disablist violence perpetrated against women with disability by neighbours and community members (NCMs) as a form of hate crime and, more specifically, as targeted violence. We argue that the lack of awareness about the existence of this form of targeted violence combines with widespread gendered and disablist prejudice to create a climate of impunity in which women are abused and their access to justice inhibited. ‘Neighbours’ and ‘community members’ are generally not intimate partners, family members, or carers, nor are they necessarily strangers. NCMs form part of the wider community in which women with disability live. To date there has been little systematic research on hate crime perpetrated against people with disability (Mason et al., 2017; Roulstone & Mason-Bish, 2013). This article draws on interviews conducted with women with disability in the remit of the project Women, Disability and Violence: Creating Access to Justice, carried out in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, from 2017 to 2018. Five women interviewed in this research spoke of severe violence perpetrated against them by NCMs. For many of these women the violence was ongoing. We take a grounded approach in this article, centering the voices and experiences of these five women in our work. The women stressed the severity of this violence, the impact on their security and feelings of safety, and the barriers to adequate services or provisions for both recognising and stopping the violence.

Introduction

Literature review and theoretical framework

Data and methodology

Results

Discussion and conclusions

References

Abstract

The European Commission has proposed that member countries develop their national self-regulation and governance initiatives to increase the number of women on corporate boards with the aim of promoting gender equality in the processes of decision-making. This has provoked some controversial opinions, which in turn has led to the search for factual data which may support the legal initiatives. In order to shed more light on this topic, this study investigates the influence of a higher percentage of women on the board of directors of companies (excluding financial companies) included in the index of the Spanish Stock Exchange IBEX35 for a fifteen-year period: 2003–2017. To do this, we use a two-stage instrumental variables (IV) regression to address endogeneity and reverse causality problems. Moreover, we study the influence of a mandatory law on female presence on company boards by using a panel data methodology. The findings of this study show that the increasing number of women on boards is positively related to higher financial performance. Moreover, as expected, the gender mandatory law boosts the female proportion on boards of directors. Consequently, there are valid business as well as ethical arguments to support mandatory gender legislation.

Introduction

Diversity among board members means heterogeneity, which can be measured with either visible characteristics (race, age, gender, etc.) or intangible items (education, occupational background, etc.) (Rao & Tilt, 2016). The scarce traditional representation of women in management positions is due to the so-called glass ceiling, namely, an invisible cultural barrier which prevents trained women from holding responsibility in organizational positions (Mateos del Cabo, Gimeno, & Nieto, 2012). Equal opportunities in both social and economic circles is a basic human right. Furthermore, the systematic exclusion of women, who constitute half of society, leads to sub-optimal boards of directors (BenAmar, Chang, & McIlkenny, 2017). Gender diversity in the composition of company boards and its implications for the firm’s financial performance is an important consideration and a prominent line of current research on the effect of related legal initiatives implemented in several countries (Velte, 2017). Some governments have enacted certain laws to promote gender equality, either mandatory or not, whilst others have only implemented some recommendations or disclosure requirements to companies. Table 1 shows the legislation governing gender diversity on the boards of directors and the proportion of women on these boards from 2007 to 2017 in the main European countries.