Learning Through Community Service: An Interview With Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is the director of Project Service Leadership in Vancouver, Washington, a nonprofit agency that provides consulting and technical assistance to Northwest schools that are developing service-learning programs

San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap

The Roadmap is designed to serve as a dynamic document to facilitate and strengthen regional collaboration, motivating and inspiring coordinated ongoing action among regional partners. By aligning planning goals on a regional scale, this Roadmap aims to foster multi-jurisdictional resilience through coordinated planning that leads to high-impact initiatives and projects. Through 6 Principles, 30 Goals, and 76 specific Actions, this Roadmap aims to amplify tangible opportunities to implement aligned multi-benefit projects that address our region’s most urgent shocks and stresses. This Roadmap is grounded in equity, with an approach that considers the region’s holistic social-ecological coastal system and fosters a regional capacity to transform and become more resilient.https://digital.sandiego.edu/npi-sdclimate/1028/thumbnail.jp

Gender, age and the MBA: An analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic career benefits

Against the background of an earlier UK study, this paper presents the findings of a Canadian based survey of career benefits from the MBA. Results indicate firstly that gender and age interact to influence perceptions of career outcomes (young men gain most in terms of extrinsic benefits of career change and pay), and secondly that both men and women gain intrinsic benefits from the MBA. However, intrinsic benefits vary by gender: men in the study were more likely to say they gained confidence from having a fuller skill set while women were more likely to say they gained confidence from feelings of self worth; men emphasised how they had learned to give up control while women argued that they had gained a ‘voice’ in the organization. The role of the MBA in career self- management and the acquisition of key skills are examined as well as the implications for the design of programmes in meeting the varied need of men and women in different age groups

Levels and Correlates of Non-Adherence to WHO Recommended Inter-Birth Intervals in Rufiji, Tanzania.

Poorly spaced pregnancies have been documented worldwide to result in adverse maternal and child health outcomes. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum inter-birth interval of 33 months between two consecutive live births in order to reduce the risk of adverse maternal and child health outcomes. However, birth spacing practices in many developing countries, including Tanzania, remain scantly addressed. METHODS: Longitudinal data collected in the Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) from January 1999 to December 2010 were analyzed to investigate birth spacing practices among women of childbearing age. The outcome variable, non-adherence to the minimum inter-birth interval, constituted all inter-birth intervals <33 months long. Inter-birth intervals >=33 months long were considered to be adherent to the recommendation. Chi-Square was used as a test of association between non-adherence and each of the explanatory variables. Factors affecting non-adherence were identified using a multilevel logistic model. Data analysis was conducted using STATA (11) statistical software. RESULTS: A total of 15,373 inter-birth intervals were recorded from 8,980 women aged 15--49 years in Rufiji district over the follow-up period of 11 years. The median inter-birth interval was 33.4 months. Of the 15,373 inter-birth intervals, 48.4% were below the WHO recommended minimum length of 33 months between two live births. Non-adherence was associated with younger maternal age, low maternal education, multiple births of the preceding pregnancy, non-health facility delivery of the preceding birth, being an in-migrant resident, multi-parity and being married. CONCLUSION: Generally, one in every two inter-birth intervals among 15--49 year-old women in Rufiji district is poorly spaced, with significant variations by socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics of mothers and newborns. Maternal, newborn and child health services should be improved with a special emphasis on community- and health facility-based optimum birth spacing education in order to enhance health outcomes of mothers and their babies, especially in rural settings

Appointing Women to Boards: Is There a Cultural Bias?

Companies that are serious about corporate governance and business ethics are turning their attention to gender diversity at the most senior levels of business (Institute of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Briefing 21:1, 2011). Board gender diversity has been the subject of several studies carried out by international organizations such as Catalyst (Increasing gender diversity on boards: Current index of formal approaches, 2012), the World Economic Forum (Hausmann et al., The global gender gap report, 2010), and the European Board Diversity Analysis (Is it getting easier to find women on European boards? 2010). They all lead to reports confirming the overall relatively low proportion of women on boards and the slow pace at which more women are being appointed. Furthermore, the proportion of women on corporate boards varies much across countries. Based on institutional theory, this study hypothesizes and tests whether this variation can be attributed to differences in cultural settings across countries. Our analysis of the representation of women on boards for 32 countries during 2010 reveals that two cultural characteristics are indeed associated with the observed differences. We use the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede (Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values, 1980) to measure this construct. Results show that countries which have the greatest tolerance for inequalities in the distribution of power and those that tend to value the role of men generally exhibit lower representations of women on boards

Commitment of independent and institutional women directors to corporate social responsibility reporting

This paper examines how independent and institutional women directors on boards affect corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) reporting. Most of the previous empirical evidence has shown a linear association between female directors and CSR disclosure, but to the best of our knowledge, no research has investigated the individual effect of independent and institutional female directors on CSR reporting. Therefore, the analysis of how the disclosure of CSR information is affected by independent and institutional women directors in a separate way merits our attention. Thus, we posit that there is a nonlinear association, concretely quadratic, between independent and institutional female directors on boards and CSR reporting. Our results demonstrate that, in line with the monitoring hypothesis, as the presence of independent and institutional women directors on boards increases, the CSR disclosure improves, but when their presence on boards reaches a tipping point (20.47% and 13.32%, respectively), CSR reporting decreases, which is consistent with the collusion hypothesis. This research contributes to the existing literature on the relationship between board gender diversity and CSR disclosure by suggesting that board structures formed by institutional and independent female directors have an effect on CSR reporting. Hence, female directors play a relevant role on boards since they may influence the CSR disclosure

Duration and determinants of birth interval among women of child bearing age in Southern Ethiopia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Longer intervals between consecutive births decrease the number of children a woman can have. This results in beneficial effects on population size and on the health status of mothers and children. Therefore, understanding the practice of birth interval and its determinants is helpful to design evidence based strategies for interventions. The objective of this study was to determine duration and determinants of birth interval among women of child bearing age in Lemo district, southern Ethiopia in March 2010.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A community based cross sectional study design with stratified multistage sampling technique was employed. A sample of 844 women of child bearing age were selected by using simple random sampling technique after complete census was conducted in selected kebeles prior to data collection. Structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Actual birth interval was measured with the respondents' memory since majority of the women or their children in the area had no birth certificate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Majority (57%) of women were practicing short birth interval length with the median birth interval length of 33 months. Actual birth interval length is significantly shorter than preferred birth interval length. Birth interval showed significant variation by contraceptive use, residence, wealth index, breast feeding and occupation of husbands.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>low proportion of optimal birth spacing practices with short actual birth interval length and longer preferred birth interval lengths were evident among the study subjects. Hence interventions to enhance contraceptive utilization behaviors among women in Lemo district would be helpful to narrow the gap between optimal and actual birth spacing.</p

Female directors and earnings management: Evidence from UK companies

Since the gender diversity of boards and the reporting of earnings are two of the most debated issues in the corporate world, the paper examines how the presence of women directors on the corporate board influences earnings management practices. We found that firms with a higher number of female and independent female directors are adopting restrained earnings management practices in the UK. We further made a distinction between high- and low-debt firms, and the outcomes reveal that female directors have a positive effect on the earnings management in low debt firms. The paper contributes to the debate on gender diversity on boards, and its impact on the use of accounting discretion in financial reporting