Perceived financial literacy, choice of investment and retirement planning amongst women

The demographic trends indicating an ageing population, as well as social changes like the shift from extended to nuclear families, give rise to the need for financial preparedness for retirement planning, especially amongst vulnerable groups and women. One of the important determinants of financial preparedness is financial literacy which is the financial knowledge possessed and the ability to effectively process economic information. Financial literacy enables informed decision making and appropriate related actions in preparing for a retired life (Njuguna & Otsola, 2011). In practice, Financial literacy may be classified into two distinct components: perceived financial literacy (PFL); and actual financial literacy (AFL). PFL is the person’s subjective perception of his/her level of financial literacy. It also termed as financial confidence since it reflects a person’s self-beliefs about her/his own level of financial literacy. AFL, on the other hand, is a more objective determination of financial literacy, being formally assessed on a set of valid evaluation questions. Though there have been several studies on Financial Literacy, there is a dearth of studies that examine the perspective of women, who are particularly vulnerable when it comes to financial preparedness at the time of retirement. The present study therefore examines the influence of PFL and AFL on financial preparedness for retirement with specific reference to women. The study adopts a descriptive methodology and modelling to assess the extent to which AFL, PFL and demographics affect financial preparedness among women. The findings of a baseline study among women residing in the United Arab Emirates are presented and several implications are discussed to support the financial preparedness of the women. Key words: Perceived financial literacy, Actual financial literacy, Financial preparednes

Women and work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: An exploratory study of women's experience in IT Jobs

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is leading the discontinuous change in every sphere of our lives, from the Internet of everything to the Internet of all, and from Artificial Intelligence and Robotics to Human Augmentation. As nations experience shifting sources of competitiveness and a “hollowing out” effect, existing competencies get destroyed and the need for new competencies arises. On one hand, there is an increasing requirement for a workforce with high technical skills and on the other hand there is a shortage of human capital that can meet this need (Choi 2017). Information Technology (IT) is one of the key sectors experiencing this phenomenon. The high gender gap - a constant 72 percent which is estimated to continue in the future – further compounds the problem. IT is seen as a male dominated occupation, as indicated, for example, by the 78 percent:22 percent male-to-female ratio of Artificial Intelligence professionals globally (World Economic Forum 2018). Even amongst the women who do work in the IT profession, studies report a “leaky pipeline” with women moving away from their IT jobs during their career (Vitores & Gil-Juárez 2016). There is an urgent need for understanding the phenomenon of gender representation in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To this end, the present study explores the experiences of women working in IT departments and organizations in Dubai, their motivations, challenges, coping strategies and organizational support systems. These women have been chosen for the study to compare the experiences of IT versus non-IT women professionals working in the IT field. Neo-classical and human capital theories highlight women’s lower levels of education and workplace experience due to childcare responsibilities. Feminist theories argue that the underlying reason lies in the patriarchal attitudes and structures that perpetuate male domination in society, which extend to the workplace. Gender studies predominantly report challenges and negative experiences that include prejudice, hostility, inequality, stereotyping etc., all of which originate from social conditioning. A gender-neutral axiological stance has been adopted for this study which broadens the understanding of womens’ experiences - both positive and negative - the sources of the challenges as well as the support from the opposite gender as well as same-gender peers, superiors and subordinates; and the elements of social conditioning that aided and those that exacerbated their experiences. The study was undertaken from a yin-and-yang positionality rather than using a gender hierarchy and hence treats both genders as complementing each other. The objective is to help address the service management imperatives of developing an enabling work culture, harnessing the potential of employees and developing a sustainable pipeline of competent professionals, which essentially involves addressing the challenges faced by women and mitigating barriers to their empowered contribution. The approach adopted was a relativist ontological approach that aimed to understand the reality as perceived by women working in IT departments/companies based on their social interactions and experiences. To address the challenges, effective service management strategies must be based on an understanding of women’s subjective reality, a qualitative study marked the first phase of the study. Keywords: Gender gap in services, IT industry, IR4, Experiences, support strategies, coping mechanisms, gender-neutral approac

Trajectories of self-rated health in people with diabetes: Associations with functioning in a prospective community sample

© 2013 Schmitz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: Self-rated health (SRH) is a single-item measure that is one of the most widely used measures of general health in population health research. Relatively little is known about changes and the trajectories of SRH in people with chronic medical conditions. The aims of the present study were to identify and describe longitudinal trajectories of self-rated health (SRH) status in people with diabetes. Methods: A prospective community study was carried out between 2008 and 2011. SRH was assessed at baseline and yearly at follow-ups (n=1288). Analysis was carried out through trajectory modeling. The trajectory groups were subsequently compared at 4 years follow-up with respect to functioning. Results: Four distinct trajectories of SRH were identified: 1) 72.2% of the participants were assigned to a persistently good SRH trajectory; 2) 10.1% were assigned to a persistently poor SRH trajectory; 3) mean SRH scores changed from good to poor for one group (7.3%); while 4) mean SRH scores changed from poor to medium/good for another group (10.4%). Those with a persistently poor perception of health status were at higher risk for poor functioning at 4 years follow-up than those whose SRH scores decreased from good to poor. Conclusions: SRH is an important predictor for poor functioning in diabetes, but the trajectory of SRH seems to be even more important. Health professionals should pay attention to not only SRH per se, but also changes in SRH over time.This work was supported by Operating Grant MOP-84574 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). GG was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the CIHR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Clinical disorders affecting mesopic vision

Vision in the mesopic range is affected by a number of inherited and acquired clinical disorders. We review these conditions and summarize the historical background, describing the clinical characteristics alongside the genetic basis and molecular biological mechanisms giving rise to rod and cone dysfunction relevant to twilight vision. The current diagnostic gold standards for each disease are discussed and curative and symptomatic treatment strategies are summarized

Functional significance of the Rad51-Srs2 complex in Rad51 presynaptic filament disruption

The SRS2 (Suppressor of RAD Six screen mutant 2) gene encodes an ATP-dependent DNA helicase that regulates homologous recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mutations in SRS2 result in a hyper-recombination phenotype, sensitivity to DNA damaging agents and synthetic lethality with mutations that affect DNA metabolism. Several of these phenotypes can be suppressed by inactivating genes of the RAD52 epistasis group that promote homologous recombination, implicating inappropriate recombination as the underlying cause of the mutant phenotype. Consistent with the genetic data, purified Srs2 strongly inhibits Rad51-mediated recombination reactions by disrupting the Rad51-ssDNA presynaptic filament. Srs2 interacts with Rad51 in the yeast two-hybrid assay and also in vitro. To investigate the functional relevance of the Srs2-Rad51 complex, we have generated srs2 truncation mutants that retain full ATPase and helicase activities, but differ in their ability to interact with Rad51. Importantly, the srs2 mutant proteins attenuated for Rad51 interaction are much less capable of Rad51 presynaptic filament disruption. An internal deletion in Srs2 likewise diminishes Rad51 interaction and anti-recombinase activity. We also present evidence that deleting the Srs2 C-terminus engenders a hyper-recombination phenotype. These results highlight the importance of Rad51 interaction in the anti-recombinase function of Srs2, and provide evidence that this Srs2 function can be uncoupled from its helicase activity