Between family and market: the decline of professional employment among Egyptian female university graduates

It is noticeable that the female professional employment is declining among graduate students in Egypt. The patriarchal gendered attitudes permeate family, labor market and state to form a powerful obstacle to women\u27s equal participation in the labor market. The young women struggle to position themselves in the labor market without institutional or structural coverage. On one hand the patriarchal family reinforces the gender norms that dictate the secondary status of women whether at the household or in the labor market and moreover, preaches the male dominance ideology. On the other hand the state\u27s legislation deepens this secondary status of women be reinforcing that women\u27s first responsibility is their families\u27. Furthermore, the employers as producers and bearers of gender norms apply firing and hiring practices and procedures that strengthen the male dominance ideology in the labor market. Young women in their trial to join the labor market struggle the gendered societal norms and the neoliberal economic system and the Structured Adjusted Programs adopted since the 1990s. These programs failed to create suitable jobs for the skilled, qualified female to compensate the freezing of the public sector as the previous main employer of women in Egypt in Nasser\u27s era and before Sadat\u27s â Open doorâ policy. Moreover, neoliberal programs are non gender sensitive as they failed to accommodate women\u27s production activity with their reproduction activities. The study adopted feminist perspective to frame the question of the decline of the professional employment among young women university graduates with case studies of students and graduates of Computer Science and Engineering at the American University in Cairo. Such a perspective allows access the barriers between subjectivity and objectivity; guarantees diversity and enables studying the articulation between neopartriarchy and neoliberalism in causing the phenomenon. The findings of the research indicated the importance of the private life over the business careers of the young women and the identification of women with domestic activities as natural and moral assignment. It also asserted the stagnation of the gender relations due to the failure of the economic development and the articulation between the gendered state and neopatriarchal Islamists. The research also remarks the failure of bargaining ability among the young women that extends to the labor market. The research calls for social transformation rather than just improving public services. My research aspires to contribute to a positive social change in the position of women in Egypt and to adopt social policy that promotes gender equality and advocates work as a human right

ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS’ INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC HEALTH PROMOTION SERVICES IN BEIRUT, LEBANON

Background: The role of pharmacists is growing globally; the shift from the traditional role of preparing and dispensing medications, to a role in medication therapy management and public health services is started to be acceptable worldwide. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the participation level of community pharmacists’ in certain public health services promotion as well as the barriers that hindered such provision. Method: A questionnaire based study has been carried targeting Lebanese community pharmacists working in Beirut, Lebanon. Socio-demographic information, types of public health consultations offered in the pharmacy, and the barriers confronted by the community pharmacists were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 24. Results: The level of involvement of community pharmacists in the provision of public health services accounted for 72.6, 72.2, 65, 46.2, 46.2, and 45.3% in counseling on hypertension, weight management, diabetes, contraceptive use, smoking cessation, and drug abuse, respectively. The Level of education, as well as years of experience, affected the pharmacist’s involvement in most of the services. Sixty-one percent from the participants offer drug treatment options to help their patients in smoking cessation. Nutrition and diet showed the highest ranked in terms of percentage (82.9%) in weight management. Eighty-three percent of the respondents counseled their patients when to start their combined hormonal contraceptives pills. Fifty-eight percent from the respondents offer psychological support when counseling on drug abuse. The highest percentage is seen when counseling regarding lifestyle modifications in both diabetes and hypertension management. Lack of time was one of the most common barriers to practice health promotion encountered by pharmacists. Conclusion: Even though the community pharmacists are playing a vital role in public health promotion, this role should be strengthen by implementing rules that impose this service and the necessary skills needed to achieve better outcomes

ASSESSMENT OF THE LEBANESE COMMUNITY PHARMACIST KNOWLEDGE, PRACTICE AND BARRIERS REGARDING THE PREVENTION OF OSTEOPOROSIS

Osteoporosis is a silent skeletal disease that is often recognized when fractures occur as a result of minimal trauma. Limited studies have assessed the degree of pharmacists’ involvement in osteoporosis prevention, risk-assessment/screening and physician referrals. To assess the Lebanese community pharmacists’ knowledge, practice and barriers regarding osteoporosis prevention. Secondary aim is to assess the pharmacists’ ability to identify high-risk patients who should be referred for bone mineral density (BMD) testing. A cross-sectional study was carried out in Beirut, Lebanon between September and October 2020 using self-administered questionnaire. Pharmacists completed a multi-component questionnaire that consisted of socio-demographic characteristics, practices, knowledge and barriers in relation to osteoporosis prevention and high-risk identification. Frequencies and proportions were used to describe the data. Simple and multiple linear regression analysis were used to examine the determinants of knowledge in the study population. The majority of pharmacists were rarely/never involved in counseling patients on osteoporosis risk factors (57.5%) and healthy lifestyle habits (62.5%) as well as engaging in risk-assessment (63.1%), screening using Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) (0%) and physician referrals (sometimes-55.6%). In addition, pharmacists were also scarcely involved in reducing the risk of falls (55.1-59.4%). Pharmacists were knowledgeable about osteoporosis prevention however had important gaps in the diseases that increase osteoporosis risk as well as in FRAX tool, indications that require BMD testing and increased risk of fall medications. Significant predictors of knowledge were receiving postgraduate training on osteoporosis and earning the pharmacy degree from a university in Lebanon. Barriers to providing osteoporosis services included lack of time, staff, space, patients’ interest in prevention activities and limited inter-professional collaboration. The study findings provided important insights on the practices, knowledge and barriers of pharmacists regarding osteoporosis prevention and high-risk identification. Concerted efforts of multiple stakeholders are needed to promote the active role of community pharmacists in order to reduce the risk of morbidity, mortality and health-care costs associated with osteoporosis and related fractures

PHYTOCHEMICAL STUDY AND THE ANTIPROLIFERATIVE ACTIVITY OF INULA VULGARIS SPECIES GROWN IN LEBANON

Objective: Cancer represents the second leading cause of death after stroke and heart diseases. Plant extracts have long been used in traditional medicine for the prevention and treatment of many illnesses, including some types of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiproliferative effects of ethyl acetate fractions of two Lebanese herbs: Inula viscosa (I. vis) and Inula vulgaris (I. vul).Methods: Plants were extracted with ethanol followed by ethyl acetate, then dried and tested on three cell lines including CaCO2, HepG2, and MCF7, to check for their viability and antiproliferative activity, using trypan blue exclusion and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Proton (1H) and carbon (13C) nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (NMR) were used to identify the compounds that have been isolated from both Inula species.Results: The current findings were consistent for both trypan blue and MTT assays. The results showed that the most potent effect for I. vul was HepG2 (IC50 20 µg/ml, 27 µg/ml), and for I. vis on MCF7 (9 µg/ml, 15 µg/ml) and CaCO2 (12 µg/ml, 22 µg/ml) in the two mentioned assays respectively. However, insignificant differences were observed among the studied plants for each of the evaluated cells indicating comparable potencies. Quercetin, quercetin glycoside, and epicatechin derivatives were isolated by fractionation on column chromatography and identified using NMR spectroscopy.Conclusion: The antiproliferative activities of the two plants could be related to their content that is significant for high levels of secondary metabolites. The identification of those compounds is necessary to establish a relationship between their chemical structures and their activities