Sweden\u27s Parental Leave Insurance: A Policy Analysis of Strategies to Increase Gender Equality

Sweden\u27s parental leave insurance is recognized internationally as the premiere parental leave policy addressing gender equality. Since 1974, when the policy changed from maternal to parental leave, policy makers have employed a variety ofstrategies including inducements, rules, and rights, to increase more gender-equal leave taking. Using Stone\u27s (2006) strategy conceptualization, together with the gender systems approach (Crompton, 1999) which frames the gendered and socially constructed nature of earner/caregiver, this analysis examines how each of Sweden\u27s incremental reforms in parental leave policy moved toward the goal of gender equality, with particular attention to father participation in caregiving

Making Sense of Poverty in Child Welfare: A Grounded Theory Informed Study of Public and Tribal Child Welfare Workers' Poverty Constructions, Perceptions of Causes, and Praxis

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. July 2013. Major: Social Work. Advisor: Elizabeth Lightfoot. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 206 pages.In the United States, the system of child welfare acts as a powerful and complex structural agent in the lives of families, especially those living in poverty. According to the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, children living in poverty are three times as likely to be abused and about seven times more likely to be neglected (Sedlak et al., 2010). However, many scholars and activists have critiqued the system of child welfare for ignoring the interconnected issues of poverty (Lindsey, 2003; Pelton, 1989; Roberts, 1999), gender inequality (Mink, 1995; Roberts, 1995, 1999), and the racialization of the system (Roberts, 1995, 1999, 2002). Scholars argue that studying the perceptions of the causes of poverty is warranted because individuals' perceptions shape behavior toward poor people and actions related to poverty (Strier, 2008), yet research on child welfare workers' perceptions of the causes of poverty is lacking. This dissertation presents a grounded theory informed study, shaped by an intersectional analysis that explores how public and tribal child welfare workers think about poverty, by examining their construction of poverty, perceptions of its causes, and how workers translate these into their practice framework. From individual interviews with 30 public and tribal child welfare workers throughout Minnesota, a nascent theory developed that describes these workers making sense of poverty in child welfare, depicted in a theoretical model. Findings include that the main way workers defined poverty was "not meeting basic needs." Three of the causal explanations of poverty workers identified built on findings from prior perception of poverty studies: individual cause, structural/systemic cause, and luck, while a fourth main causal explanation rose from the data, which was family/generational cause. In addition, the workers in this study had more to say about what child welfare workers could not do to address poverty than what child welfare workers could do. The two main strategies workers stated that child welfare workers could take to address poverty were being "resource brokers" and having an advocacy perspective. Lastly, workers perceived their social location, specifically class, and somewhat their race and their gender, had an impact on how they thought about poverty. The implications of these findings include child welfare reforms that respond to the structural and internalized limitations workers experience when addressing poverty which extends to the frame of poverty as child welfare issue, and social work education and child welfare training that starts with the historical realities of the United States and situates how racial and gender inequality today continue because of the federal, state and local policies that supported race-based and gender-based discrimination, limiting the access to resources and assets that impacted the evolution of wealth in this country

Ebb and Flow: A Multiple Streams Analysis of Change in Kansas Domestic Violence Policy

State domestic violence legislative interventions shape the way states define and respond to domestic violence. In 2010, Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson signed into law Substitute House Bill 2517, which included a strategy to track domestic violence offenders from the time of arrest through the court system, and an expansion of the statutory definition of domestic violence. The following policy analysis uses a multiple streams framework to examine this policy change, including the motivations and actions of key policy entrepreneurs. We also discuss the implementation of the bill as passed and implications for domestic violence victims and policy activists in other states

Gender Transformative Approaches to Engaging Men in Gender-Based Violence Prevention: A Review and Conceptual Model

Engaging men and boys as participants and stakeholders in gender-based violence (GBV) prevention initiatives is an increasingly institutionalized component of global efforts to end GBV. Accordingly, evidence of the impact of men\u27s engagement endeavors is beginning to emerge, particularly regarding interventions aimed at fostering gender equitable and nonviolent attitudes and behaviors among men. This developing evidence base suggests that prevention programs with a gender transformative approach, or an explicit focus on questioning gender norms and expectations, show particular promise in achieving GBV prevention outcomes. Interventions targeting attitude and behavior change, however, represent just one kind of approach within a heterogeneous collection of prevention efforts around the globe, which can also include community mobilization, policy change, and social activism. The degree to which gender transformative principles inform this broader spectrum of men\u27s engagement work is unclear. The goals of this article are twofold. First, we offer a conceptual model that captures and organizes a broader array of men\u27s antiviolence activities in three distinct but interrelated domains: (1) initial outreach and recruitment of previously unengaged males, (2) interventions intended to promote gender-equitable attitudes and behavior among men, and (3) gender equity-related social action aimed at eradicating GBV, inclusive of all genders\u27 contributions. Second, we review empirical literature in each of these domains. Across these two goals, we critically assess the degree to which gender transformative principles inform efforts within each domain, and we offer implications for the continuing conceptualization and assessment of efforts to increase men\u27s participation in ending GBV

Psychosocial Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Men’s Gender-Related Attitudes, Employment and Housework, and Demographic Characteristics

Background and objective: Globally, men are at greater risk of mortality and serious physical consequences from COVID-19 infection than women, but are less impacted by the pandemic’s impact on labor force participation and increased childcare responsibilities. Outside of gender identity, however, it is unclear whether men’s beliefs about gender may be related to the kinds of COVID-19-related impacts they report. This study sought to describe the employment, income, and household responsibility-related impacts of the pandemic on a sample of young men in the U.S. and to examine relationships between the men’s gender ideologies and attitudes toward gender equity with self-reported stress impacts of the pandemic. Methods: The data are from an online survey of 481 young men from across the U.S. Measures included scales assessing masculinity ideology, modern sexism, support for traditional divisions of labor by gender, and attitudes toward gender equity. New items developed for this study assessed COVID-19-related changes in employment, household responsibilities, and childcare duties as well as levels of stress. Hierarchical regression examined the relative roles of demographic characteristics, changes in employment and household work, and gender-related attitudes on COVID-related stress. Results: Descriptive findings showed that under 50% of the men in the sample experienced negative COVID-related impacts on employment, but that a majority of the men reported at least some COVID-related stress. Results of the hierarchical regression suggest that higher levels of stress were predicted by having a minoritized sexual identity, less religiosity, experiencing employment or household responsibility-related changes, and not endorsing modern sexism or a traditional, gendered division of labor. Conclusions: Experiencing COVID-19-related stress was normative in this sample of young men. However, endorsing traditional notions of a gendered division of labor was slightly protective against higher levels of COVID-related stress. These findings add to existing evidence that gender analysis must be a central component of ongoing COVID-related policy and programming development

What Motivates Men\u27s Involvement in Gender-Based Violence Prevention? Latent Class Profiles and Correlates in an International Sample of Men

Data from an international sample of 392 men who had attended gender-based violence (GBV) prevention events were used to examine motivations for involvement in GBV prevention work. Participants responded to an online survey (available in English, French, and Spanish). The most commonly reported reasons for involvement included concern for related social justice issues (87 percent), exposure to the issue of violence through work (70 percent), hearing a moving story about domestic or sexual violence (59 percent), and disclosure of abuse from someone close to the participant (55 percent). Using a latent class analysis, we identified four profiles of men\u27s motivations: low personal connection (22 percent), empathetic connection (26 percent), violence exposed connection (23 percent), and high personal and empathetic connection (29 percent). Participants classified into these profiles did not differ in length of movement involvement but some differences on key ally variables and by global region did emerge. Implications for engagement strategies and future research are discussed

Context, Challenges, And Tensions In Global Efforts To Engage Men In The Prevention Of Violence Against Women: An Ecological Analysis

As gender-based violence prevention programs around the world increasingly include efforts to engage men and boys as antiviolence allies, both the profound benefits and the inherent complexities of these efforts are emerging. Acknowledging and exploring tensions associated with engaging men is an important element of thoughtfully fostering menÕs antiviolence ally movements so as to both respectfully invite men into antiviolence work and create effective, gender-equitable prevention programming. To this end, this study presents descriptive findings regarding challenges associated with menÕs engagement programming from in-depth interviews with twenty-nine representatives of organizations that engage men and boys in preventing violence against women and girls in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and North and South America. Programs reported negotiating complex issues related to gender, the intersectional nature of menÕs identities, and establishing legitimacy and sustainability within communities while maintaining ideological focus and consistency. Additionally, programs reported that these tensions manifest across ecological layers of analysis, and impact both the participation of individual men and the programsÕ experiences in community and national contexts

Sustainable development goal 2: improved targets and indicators for agriculture and food security

The pursuit of global food security and agricultural sustainability, the dual aim of the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-2), requires urgent and concerted action from developing and developed countries. This, in turn, depends on clear and universally applicable targets and indicators which are partially lacking. The novel and complex nature of the SDGs poses further challenges to their implementation on the ground, especially in the face of interlinkages across SDG objectives and scales. Here we review the existing SDG-2 indicators, propose improvements to facilitate their operationalization and illustrate their practical implementation in Nigeria, Brazil and the Netherlands. This exercise provides insights into the concrete actions needed to achieve SDG-2 across contrasting development contexts and highlights the challenges of addressing the links between targets and indicators within and beyond SDG-2. Ultimately, it underscores the need for integrated policies and reveals opportunities to leverage the fulfillment of SDG-2 worldwide

The OpenMolcas Web: A Community-Driven Approach to Advancing Computational Chemistry

The developments of the open-source OpenMolcas chemistry software environment since spring 2020 are described, with a focus on novel functionalities accessible in the stable branch of the package or via interfaces with other packages. These developments span a wide range of topics in computational chemistry and are presented in thematic sections: electronic structure theory, electronic spectroscopy simulations, analytic gradients and molecular structure optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, and other new features. This report offers an overview of the chemical phenomena and processes OpenMolcas can address, while showing that OpenMolcas is an attractive platform for state-of-the-art atomistic computer simulations

Evidence for Reductive Genome Evolution and Lateral Acquisition of Virulence Functions in Two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Strains

Ruiz JC, D'Afonseca V, Silva A, et al. Evidence for Reductive Genome Evolution and Lateral Acquisition of Virulence Functions in Two Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis Strains. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(4): e18551.Background: Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, a Gram-positive, facultative intracellular pathogen, is the etiologic agent of the disease known as caseous lymphadenitis (CL). CL mainly affects small ruminants, such as goats and sheep; it also causes infections in humans, though rarely. This species is distributed worldwide, but it has the most serious economic impact in Oceania, Africa and South America. Although C. pseudotuberculosis causes major health and productivity problems for livestock, little is known about the molecular basis of its pathogenicity. Methodology and Findings: We characterized two C. pseudotuberculosis genomes (Cp1002, isolated from goats; and CpC231, isolated from sheep). Analysis of the predicted genomes showed high similarity in genomic architecture, gene content and genetic order. When C. pseudotuberculosis was compared with other Corynebacterium species, it became evident that this pathogenic species has lost numerous genes, resulting in one of the smallest genomes in the genus. Other differences that could be part of the adaptation to pathogenicity include a lower GC content, of about 52%, and a reduced gene repertoire. The C. pseudotuberculosis genome also includes seven putative pathogenicity islands, which contain several classical virulence factors, including genes for fimbrial subunits, adhesion factors, iron uptake and secreted toxins. Additionally, all of the virulence factors in the islands have characteristics that indicate horizontal transfer. Conclusions: These particular genome characteristics of C. pseudotuberculosis, as well as its acquired virulence factors in pathogenicity islands, provide evidence of its lifestyle and of the pathogenicity pathways used by this pathogen in the infection process. All genomes cited in this study are available in the NCBI Genbank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) under accession numbers CP001809 and CP001829