Splitting and blaming: The psychic life of neoliberal executive women

The aim of the article is to explore the psychic life of executive women under neoliberalism using psychosocial approaches. The article shows how, despite enduring unfair treatment and access to opportunities, many executive women remain emotionally invested in upholding the neoliberal ideal that if one perseveres, one shall be successful, regardless of gender. Drawing on psychosocial approaches, we explore how the accounts given by some executive women of repudiation, as denying gender inequality, and individualization, as subjects completely agentic, are underpinned by the unconscious, intertwined processes of splitting and blaming. Women sometimes split off undesirable aspects of the workplace, which repudiates gender inequality, or blame other women, which individualizes failure and responsibility for change. We explain that splitting and blaming enable some executive women to manage the anxiety evoked from threats to the neoliberal ideal of the workplace. This article thereby makes a contribution to existing postfeminist scholarship by integrating psychosocial approaches to the study of the psychic life of neoliberal executive women, by exploring why they appear unable to engage directly with and redress instances of gender discrimination in the workplace

Promoting Signing of Advance Directives in Faith Communities

OBJECTIVE: To develop a participatory educational program implemented in faith communities that would increase discussion and signing of two types of advance directives—living will and durable power of attorney for health care decisions. DESIGN: Longitudinal study with four annual cycles of program implementation, evaluation, and revision incorporating a program that fostered the discussion, signing, and/or revision of advance directives. The program involved an educational workbook and ongoing support by parish nurses. SETTING: Seventeen faith communities in Wichita, Kansas. Faith communities included several predominantly white congregations, as well as several primarily African-American and Hispanic congregations. PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen faith communities, their pastors, and 25 parish nurses worked with 361 self-selected residents, living in community settings, to participate in the program as members of their faith communities. Congregations were recruited by the executive director of a local interfaith ministries organization and parish nurses. MAIN RESULTS: Two hundred forty-eight (69%) of the congregants who started the program completed it. Of the program completers, 83 (33%) had a directive prior to the program and 140 (56%) had a directive after completion. One hundred eighty-six of the completers discussed directives with family members. Overall, 89 (36%) of the 248 program completers revised an existing directive or signed one for the first time. Age was positively related to having signed/revised a directive prior to the program. Fear that advance directives would be used to deny medical care was negatively related to signing both prior to the program and after program completion, and contributed to participants' reluctance to sign directives. CONCLUSIONS: Educational programs implemented by parish nurses in faith communities can be effective in increasing rates of discussion, revision, and/or signing of advance directives

Virtual Social Networks as Public Sphere: Relating E-government Maturity, ICT Laws, and Corruption

Part 4: Security, Privacy, Ethics and MisinformationInternational audienceThe role of e-government in reducing corruption is an active area of research in information systems (IS). Drawing on the concept of public sphere from political science literature, we seek to explore how the diffusion of virtual social networks (VSNs) influence the relationships between e-government maturity in a country, its ICT laws and corruption. Our analyses based on publicly available archival data substantiates the (1) relationship between e-government maturity in a country and its corruption through the indirect effect of ICT laws; (2) interaction effect of VSN diffusion in a country on its e-government maturity and ICT laws; and (3) interaction effect of VSN diffusion in a country on its ICT laws and corruption. The key contribution of this research is the reestablishment of the idea of public sphere in the context of VSN diffusion, and how it affects e-government outcomes of a country