Engendering agricultural research

This paper makes a case for gender equity in the agricultural R&D system. It reviews the evidence on exactly why it is important to pay attention to gender issues in agriculture and why it is necessary to recognize women�s distinct food-security roles throughout the entire value chain�for both food and nonfood crops, marketed and nonmarketed commodities. The authors examine whether women are factored into the work of research institutions, and whether research institutions effectively focus on women�s needs. In short, are these institutions conducting research by and for women? The paper�s conceptual framework demonstrates the need to integrate gender into setting agricultural priorities; conducting the research itself; designing, implementing, and adopting extension services; and evaluating their impacts. It concludes with recommendations regarding how to make these suggested changes.Agriculture, extension services, Gender equity, nonmarket commodities, Priority setting, R&D, value chains,

Subject: Human Resource Management

Compiled by Susan LaCette.HumanResourceManagement.pdf: 5527 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Women, Ergonomics and Repetitiveness

A fair comparison of the conditions in which men and women work is inconsistent, since although they are interacting with the same objects, means and conditions of work, there are differences in the way each gender work, so it condition that naturally the productive systems segregate and thus establish jobs typically “feminized” based on the best adaptation of women to repetitive work low load. From a physical and psychological point of view, female workers have greater exposure to low strength, repetitive motion of upper extremities that causes gender disparity with its health consequences. This chapter documents a study where females were found to have lower biomechanical negative effects in the upper extremities compared to similar male exposures and a higher rate of productivity, especially in tasks of low force demand. This can be attributed to the fact that men used more strength than what was strictly necessary to accomplish the task, mobilizing a greater number of muscle groups than women; females also showed a greater resilience to conditions of high repetitiveness that demanded high-quantitative psychological demands and still maintain productivity rates over time, evidencing also lower rates of rotation and absenteeism caused by musculoskeletal disorders

Research Output of Indian Women Scientists in the field of Physics and Astronomy: A Scientometrics study

The research output of the women scientists of the selected Indian research institutes in the field of physics and astronomy is analyzed for a period of 2011 to 2015. It is observed that the strength of women scientists (12.35 %) are less in compare to men scientists (87.65%), as only 73 women scientists out of total 583 staff. These women scientists have published total number of 713 research articles, and the current study reveals the contribution of each scientist individually. The highest numbers of papers (144) were published by National Physical Laboratory but Indian Institute of Astrophysics got the highest number of citations for fewer publications (2018 for 129 articles). The majority of these articles were published in collaboration with other institutes of national and international level. To understand the collaboration between these and other institute the collaboration coefficient is calculated (CC) and found that these institute have average CC ~0 .7480. On the basis of analysis of 713 publications of women scientists, the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics is assigned as rank one because maximum articles were published in this journal, and in term of most productive authors, Aditi Sen De from Harish Chandra Research Institute with maximum 38 publications is allocated as rank one among all women scientists. Additionally, this study also presents detailed information on the corresponding and first authorship of all these papers

Gender Variations in Research Productivity: Insights from Scholarly Research

Abstract The variations in research productivity available in the scholarly world, between men and women, have always attracted the interest of many researchers across the globe. The present study aims to identify the differences in research productivity, patent creation, funding, collaboration, citation and impact between men and women across regions and disciplines over a period of time. After the comprehensive literature survey, results of various studies were correlated in a systematic manner for further analyses to reveal the findings and draw conclusions. The findings clearly depict that comparatively, males have a higher average productivity than females for all the performance indicators especially research productivity, patent creation, funding and collaboration across regions and disciplines; however, the gap is narrowing with the passage of time. The researchers have noted many factors, personal as well as academic, responsible for the limited productivity of women in research. Age, marriage, children and domestic workload are some personal factors badly affecting research productivity of women whereas less representation of women in higher education, low academic ranks, and fewer research funds are some of the academic factors affecting the research productivity negatively. In order to eliminate the gender differences in research productivity, some recommendations have been provided. Keywords Gender Variation; Gender Differences; Research Productivity; Research Performance; Research Output; Research Funding; Gender Bias; Research Impac

Scientific production in psychology: a gender analysis

This study aims to identify possible gender inequalities in the scholarly output of researchers in the field of psychology in Spain. A sample of 522 papers and reviews published in 2007 was extracted from the Thomson ISI Web of Science. The presence of women, the collaboration pattern and the impact of these scientific publications were analyzed. The results show that the average number of female researchers per paper was 0.42 (SD 0.33) and that 42.3 % of the papers had a female researcher as the first author. Moreover, the proportion of female authors of a paper was statistically significantly higher when the first author was female. Studies carried out in cooperation with other Spanish or international institutions had fewer female authors than studies conducted at a single center. The impact of the papers, measured by the journal impact factor and the number of citations, was independent of the authors' gender or the proportion of female authors. In summary, the study highlights a gender imbalance in Spanish scientific output in Psychology, and a higher proportion of male researchers in international networks

"All Types of Inequality are Not Created Equal: Divergent Impacts of Inequality on Economic Growth"

Evidence of an increase in various forms of inequality since the 1970s has motivated research on its relationship to growth and development. The findings of that research are contradictory and inconclusive. One source of these divergent results is that researchers rely on different group measures of inequality. Inequality by gender, household, class, and ethnicity may produce divergent effects on growth since they operate on macroeconomic outcomes via alternative pathways. Further, even within groups, the effect of inequality on growth depends on the measure used. For example, inequalities in capabilities (such as education and health status) may operate differently on growth than inequality in wages and income. This paper explores the different conceptual approaches to measuring between-group and within-group inequality and delineates the sometimes contradictory pathways by which these measures affect economic growth and development. The typology is applied to the cases of East Asia and Latin America.

2002 Labour Overview: Latin America and the Caribbean

[Excerpt] For 2002, the region’s GDP growth rate is expected to fall by -0.8%, while ILO projections indicate that the region’s GDP should grow 3% in 2003, thus permitting the region’s urban unemployment to drop to 8.6%, still very high, but closer to rates achieved in the last years of the previous decade. No symmetrical effect in terms of pushing down the decent work deficit should be expected, however. The region needs to grow by at least 4% annually if a rise in both unemployment and lack of social protection is to be avoided. The experiences garnered from frequent crises in the past indicate that in periods of economic growth or boom the labour market’s basic variables recover more slowly than the pace at which they deteriorate at times of contraction or recession