Women's Studies Graduates And The Labour Market: New Thoughts And New Questions

Despite almost three decades of formal study of women and gender at university and college levels, there is a noticeable paucity of debate and documentation over how Women's Studies programs relate to the domain of the vocational and how Women's Studies graduates fare in the labour market. This essay explores some of the reasons why the vocational elements of Women's Studies have, with isolated exceptions, been overlooked in most debates about the future of Women's Studies and examines cogent arguments for a more systematic consideration of these questions in the future.Malgré près de 30 ans d'étude formelle sur les femmes et les sexes au niveau universitaire et au niveau collégial, il y a un grand manque de débat et de documentation sur le lien qui existe entre les programmes d'Etudes des femmes et le domaine professionnel et comment les diplômés des programmes d'Etudes des femmes réussissent dans le marché du travail. Cet article explore quelques unes des raisons pour lesquelles les éléments du programme d'études des femmes, à part quelques exceptions, ont été négligés dans la plupart des débats sur l'avenir des études des femmes et étudie le manque d'arguments convaincants pour qu'il y ait une considération plus systématique de ces questions à l'avenir

Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team (SCAN Team) : early establishment, success stories, challenges and the way forward / Yarina Ahmad ... [et al.]

This paper presents a pioneering program/initiative to prevent child abuse in Malaysia: Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect Team (hereafter SCAN Team). While there are three main initiative/programs to prevent child abuse in Malaysia, namely Child Protection Team, Child Protection Unit and SCAN Team; this paper focuses on only one initiative – SCAN Team which based at the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur (hereafter GHKL). The presentation of this paper is based on the findings of in-depth interview with focal person who manages SCAN Team, and further supported by relevant important documents related to SCAN Team (i.e. archives newspaper from SCAN Team, Malaysian Social Institute (Institut Sosial Malaysia – ISM) and relevant secondary data). Findings of this study revealed that SCAN Team has effectively deal with challenges during its early establishment; notably, SCAN Team has received international recognition in 1998 for ‘protecting the lives of children’. Nonetheless, the awareness of public about the existence of SCAN Team has waned in 21st Century due to several issues and challenges. Despite this, SCAN Team is moving forward through initiatives, in particular, re-marketing their program through various activities and campaigns to prevent child abuse in Malaysia

Going 4D: Embedding the Four Dimensional Framework for Curriculum Design

The University of Derby has a history of interprofessional development, initially called Shared Learning, since 1992. When the initial research investigation was conceived, the Government in the UK had already been advocating the value of shared learning teamwork for professionals within the NHS for almost 30 years. The Government saw this as a means of providing better care for the service user as well as a way of reducing costs in terms of higher education. In contrast, the profession and professionals themselves perceived that the sharing involved in this type of teamwork was a way of eroding their professional base. They believed that eventually several generic workers could be employed instead of the professionals themselves, and so resisted the challenge of sharing information in teams and, at the time, sought to protect their own individual professional base (Forman, 2000). Nevertheless the University of Derby saw the development of shared learning and interprofessional learning as an opportunity to bring occupational therapists, diagnostic and therapeutic radiographers together with a curriculum designed to enhance the sharing that could take place between their studies. Due to the changes in leadership of these areas the profile of interprofessional education and practice was not seen as quite so important. The appointment of a new Dean in 2004 however re-engaged the teaching teams to learn from practice internationally and to include education practice and research on the interprofessional agenda at Derby. One of these changes will be covered in this chapter based on the writing team’s involvement with action research using a model developed over seven years in Australia

Neuropsychiatric risk in children with intellectual disability of genetic origin: IMAGINE, a UK national cohort study

Background Children with intellectual disability frequently have multiple co-morbid neuropsychiatric conditions and poor physical health. Genomic testing is increasingly recommended as a first-line investigation for these children. We aim to determine the effect of genomics, inheritance, and socioeconomic deprivation on neuropsychiatric risk in children with intellectual disability of genetic origin as compared with the general population. Methods IMAGINE is a prospective cohort study using online mental health and medical assessments in a cohort of 3407 UK participants with intellectual disability and pathogenic genomic variants as identified by the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Our study is on a subset of these participants, including all children aged 4–19 years. We collected diagnostic genomic reports from NHS records and asked primary caregivers to provide an assessment of their child using the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment System 3 (ABAS-3), and a medical history questionnaire. Each child was assigned a rank based on their postcode using the index of multiple deprivation (IMD). We compared the IMAGINE cohort with the 2017 National Survey of Children's Mental Health in England. The main outcomes of interest were mental health and neurodevelopment according to the DAWBA and SDQ. Findings We recruited 2770 children from the IMAGINE study between Oct 1, 2014 and June 30, 2019, of whom 2397 (86·5%) had a basic assessment of their mental health completed by their families and 1277 (46·1%) completed a medical history questionnaire. The mean age of participants was 9·2 years (SD 3·9); 1339 (55·9%) were boys and 1058 (44·1%) were girls. 355 (27·8%) of 1277 reported a seizure disorder and 814 (63·7%) reported movement or co-ordination problems. 1771 (73·9%) of 2397 participants had a pathogenic copy number variant (CNV) and 626 (26·1%) had a pathogenic single nucleotide variant (SNV). Participants were representative of the socioeconomic spectrum of the UK general population. The relative risk (RR) of co-occurring neuropsychiatric diagnoses, compared with the English national population, was high: autism spectrum disorder RR 29·2 (95% CI 23·9–36·5), ADHD RR 13·5 (95% CI 11·1–16·3). In children with a CNV, those with a familial variant tended to live in more socioeconomically deprived areas than those with a de novo variant. Both inheritance and socioeconomic deprivation contributed to neuropsychiatric risk in those with a CNV. Interpretation Children with genomic variants and intellectual disability are at an increased risk of neuropsychiatric difficulties. CNV variant inheritance and socioeconomic deprivation also contribute to the risk. Early genomic investigations of children with intellectual disability could facilitate the identification of the most vulnerable children. Additionally, harnessing parental expertise using online DAWBA assessments could rapidly identify children with exceptional needs to child mental health services

Fludarabine, cytarabine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and idarubicin with gemtuzumab ozogamicin improves event-free survival in younger patients with newly diagnosed aml and overall survival in patients with npm1 and flt3 mutations

Purpose To determine the optimal induction chemotherapy regimen for younger adults with newly diagnosed AML without known adverse risk cytogenetics. Patients and Methods One thousand thirty-three patients were randomly assigned to intensified (fludarabine, cytarabine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and idarubicin [FLAG-Ida]) or standard (daunorubicin and Ara-C [DA]) induction chemotherapy, with one or two doses of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO). The primary end point was overall survival (OS). Results There was no difference in remission rate after two courses between FLAG-Ida + GO and DA + GO (complete remission [CR] + CR with incomplete hematologic recovery 93% v 91%) or in day 60 mortality (4.3% v 4.6%). There was no difference in OS (66% v 63%; P = .41); however, the risk of relapse was lower with FLAG-Ida + GO (24% v 41%; P < .001) and 3-year event-free survival was higher (57% v 45%; P < .001). In patients with an NPM1 mutation (30%), 3-year OS was significantly higher with FLAG-Ida + GO (82% v 64%; P = .005). NPM1 measurable residual disease (MRD) clearance was also greater, with 88% versus 77% becoming MRD-negative in peripheral blood after cycle 2 (P = .02). Three-year OS was also higher in patients with a FLT3 mutation (64% v 54%; P = .047). Fewer transplants were performed in patients receiving FLAG-Ida + GO (238 v 278; P = .02). There was no difference in outcome according to the number of GO doses, although NPM1 MRD clearance was higher with two doses in the DA arm. Patients with core binding factor AML treated with DA and one dose of GO had a 3-year OS of 96% with no survival benefit from FLAG-Ida + GO. Conclusion Overall, FLAG-Ida + GO significantly reduced relapse without improving OS. However, exploratory analyses show that patients with NPM1 and FLT3 mutations had substantial improvements in OS. By contrast, in patients with core binding factor AML, outcomes were excellent with DA + GO with no FLAG-Ida benefit

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

How adoption went wrong in Australia, and why we’re apologising today

By Denise Cuthbert, RMIT University Today in the Great Hall of Parliament House, prime minister Julia Gillard will apologise to those affected by past forced adoption practices. This is the third national apology delivered in recent years. It follows on the historic first apology to the Indigenous Stolen Generations, delivered by Kevin Rudd in February 2008; and a second national apology, also delivered by Rudd, to forced child migrants, former wards of the state and institutionalised children in November 2009. The history of adoption Legislated child adoption emerged in Australia in the early decades of the 20th century to control informal markets in children and babies which existed from the early days of white settlement. Early legislated adoption was generally an open affair and frequently involved older children who represented far less risk and labour than infants. Sturdy boys who could chop wood and girls able to cook and clean were in demand. But as affluence grew, so did sentiment. A concept of childhood emerged that spared children from the need to contribute to the family economy of the family. This sentimental view of childhood flourished with the rise of the middles classes in the mid-twentieth century. This shift in thinking, coupled with other developments such as the availability of breast milk substitutes, changed thinking on adoption in favour of the adoption of infants. The years following the end of the World War II to the mid-1970s represented the heyday of infant adoption in Australia. How it all went wrong Framed as a win-win-win social policy option, infant adoption was seen as a solution to the double stigmas of infertility and illegitimacy, and spared the state the burden of caring for children of mothers deemed “unfit” to raise them by reason of their extra-marital sexuality. Adoption as a social policy option was promoted in women’s magazines and the popular press, spurring demand and the expectation that babies would be available for adoption by those unable to conceive. Amendments to adoption legislation around the country from the 1950s removed the openness which had existed in earlier adoption, tightened secrecy provisions, and secured adoptive parents in all senses as if they were the parents of the adopted child. Many maternity hospitals in Australian cities and town functioned not all that differently from the baby farms which early adoption legislation was designed to stamp out. Further social changes including the availability of the contraceptive pill from the early 1970s, shifting attitudes to extra-marital sexuality and the introduction of a readily accessible Commonwealth single mothers’ benefit led to a dramatic downturn in the number of babies available on the local adoption market. Fed for several decades by a thriving adoption industry which routinely removed babies from single mothers, demand for babies for adoption did not go away. New sources of babies were identified and inter-country adoption into Australia emerged following the mass airlift of infants and children from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975. Lose-lose-lose An estimated 100,000 to 150,000 thousand infants were forcibly or coercively removed from mothers, mostly young unmarried women, in these years. The legacy of pain and loss for many of these mothers and their children has persisted for decades. Even some of those who were adopted into loving homes report enduring lifelong anguish about identity and loss of connection with family. The apparent win-win-win policy option of secret and sealed adoption has not stood the test of time. While for a range of reasons many children’s birth parents are unable to care for them, this form of adoption requires children to pay a very high price for the care they receive: the cost is connection with and knowledge of their families and their communities. Sorry is no longer the hardest word Saying sorry is now something of a political habit in Australia. A thread of continuity runs through the two earlier apologies and that to be delivered this morning. In each case, the state is apologising for the impact of past policy interventions into families. These interventions which were framed as being good for empire, the nation and the adoptees themselves saw children taken from parents who were black, poor, unmarried or otherwise deemed unfit to care for them. Children were lied to and in too many cases abused by those who delivered them from the “risks” they faced with their own parents, “risks” we now see for what they are – bigotry in practice. Sadly, it is likely that this apology, like the others, will separate national regret from national responsibility for adequate redress or compensation for the wrongs done in the past. It is also likely that we will hear rhetoric about how these appalling wrongs committed in the past cannot and will not be repeated. As we listen to these words, we need to be aware of moves afoot in several jurisdictions in Australia, such as the child protection inquiry in Queensland, to expedite processes by which children may be made available for adoption into loving Australian homes. It is to be hoped that the courageous women who fought a long, hard campaign for recognition of the injustices done to them receive some genuine solace from today’s apology. And, that many of their children – whether known to them or not – can share in this solace and truly understand that they were, in most cases, desperately loved and wanted by the mothers from whom they were taken. I hope that this recognition and solace does some healing work, for they will receive little else from today in the form of redress. Denise Cuthbert received funding for the ARC project A History of Adoption in Australia funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery grant, 2009-2012. She has also undertaken funded research for the Commonwealth Attorney-General into intercountry adoption (2008). This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article

Qualitative Inequality: Experiences of Women in Ethiopian Higher Education

Abstract: This article examines the lived experiences of women in Ethiopian higher education as a counterpoint to understandings of gender equity informed only by data on admission, progression and completions rates. Drawing on a critical qualitative inquiry approach, we analyse and interpret data drawn from focus group discussions with female students and academic women in two public universities in Ethiopia. Individual accounts and shared experiences of women in higher education revealed that despite affirmative action policies that slightly benefit females at entry point, gender inequality persists in qualitative forms. Prejudice against women and sexual violence are highlighted as key expressions of qualitative gender inequalities in the two universities. It is argued that higher education institutions in Ethiopia are male-dominated, hierarchical and hostile to women. Furthermore, taken-for-granted gender assumptions and beliefs at institutional, social relational and individual levels operate to make women conform to structures of disadvantage and in effect sustain repressive gender relations