Achieving gender equality in learning outcomes: Evidence from a non-formal education program in Bangladesh

Non-formal education (NFE) programs have been a long standing approach to educating marginalized children, especially girls, across the developing world. Though such programs provide girls expanded access to learning opportunities, the evidence of whether enhanced access actually leads girls to achieve on par with boys remains limited. I analyze the academic achievement of girls relative to boys in a sample of 1,203 children participating in a NFE program in rural Bangladesh, known as SHIKHON which means “learning” in Bengali. I find strong correlational evidence that gender is not significantly associated with achievement; on average, girls achieve on par with boys across four subject areas including literacy (English and Bangla), numeracy, science and social science

Chinese women in industrial home-based sub-contracting in the garment industry in Kuala Lumpur: neither valued nor costed

This article examines the circumstances leading to fifty-five married Chinese women’s withdrawal from participation in the formal sector to enter the informal sector specifically in home-based sub-contracting work. These women sub-contract from the garment makers to sew, cut and embroider at home while caring for their family. The article also discusses if the efforts of these home-based sub-contractors are costed and valued by the factories, their families and themselves. The home-based sub-contractors provide an industrial reserve army that is truly disposable, flexible and cheap. They create an informal sector within the formal structure giving the best of both worlds for the extraction of surplus by the garment makers. However, although home-based sub-contractors offer tremendous advantages to the garment industry to ensure its competitiveness and flexibility, the industry, evidently, does not value them nor are they costed. Even the husbands fail to value these women’s contribution to family well-being

Relationships of ratings of appetite to food intake in healthy older men and women

© 2004 ElsevierThe aim of this study was to determine how rated appetite relates to the amount eaten in a meal in healthy older people. On two study days, 32 healthy older men (n=16) and women (n=16) aged 65–85 years, recruited by advertisement, consumed a standardised breakfast and 4 h later were offered lunch from which they could eat freely. Foods eaten at lunch were weighed and energy intake calculated from nutrient composition data. Appetite was assessed at baseline and at 30-min intervals between meals by line ratings of hunger, fullness, nausea and how much could be eaten. The optimum time for correlations both among appetite ratings and between appetite and lunch intake was just before the lunch. Mean coefficients of repeatability (21–38 mm) and correlation coefficients (0.67–0.71) at that point in time were similar to those reported previously in young adults. Thus, in older and well as young adults, the size of a meal is most closely related to rated appetite just before the meal.Barbara A. Parker, Anyssa K. Ludher, Tam Khai Loon, Michael Horowitz and Ian M. Chapmanhttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622785/description#descriptio

From formal employment to street vending: Women’s room to maneuver and labor market decisions under conditions of export-orientation – the case of Penang, Malaysia.

This study is a compilation thesis consisting of an introduction and four separate papers. It is an inquiry into women‟s working lives in Penang, Malaysia. The export-oriented development model adopted in Malaysia stimulated women‟s large-scale entry to the formal labor force. However, export-orientation has not been able to sustain women‟s long terms participation in the formal labor market and female labor force participation rates in Malaysia have never exceeded 50 percent. This means that despite the expansion of the Malaysian economy, declining fertility rates and increased female educational attainment, over half of working aged women in Malaysia remain „outside the labor force‟. This thesis aims to investigate women‟s room to maneuver in the labor market by scrutinizing women‟s move from the formal to the informal economy over the life course. It also aims to contribute further knowledge relating to women‟s work in the informal economy – in particular its spatial aspects. The empirical study is based on field work conducted in Penang between 2009 and 2011. The 80 women interviewed in Penang share the common feature that they make their living in the informal economy – mostly as street vendors (hawkers). The majority used to work in the formal economy as machine operators or assembly workers in factories or in low-skilled jobs the tourism industry. An important reason for the low female labor force participation rates in Malaysia is that women‟s engagement in the formal labor market has a strong one-peaked pattern with many permanently leaving the labor force at a relatively young age. However, although women who leave the formal labor market tend to go missing statistically – they continue to work in the informal economy. This study suggests that while women‟s formal labor force participation has one peak, their full work participation over the life course can be more accurately described as two-peaked. This study has found that women‟s decisions to leave formal employment were often made under the simultaneous influence of marriage, child-birth and unsustainable labor conditions. In a similar fashion their decisions to not (re)engage in formal employment but rather to opt for informal work were influenced by the lack of institutional support for working mothers, norms around gender, work and place and an unwillingness to (re)engage in exploitative work in the formal economy. Issues of distance (to formal employment opportunities) and proximity (to informal work) were key features in their room to maneuver and labor market decisions

Validity and reliability of the patient assessment on chronic illness care (PACIC) questionnaire: The Malay version

10.1186/s12875-018-0807-5BMC Family Practice19111