Women in the LAC Labor Market: The Remarkable 1990’s

We examine levels and trends of labor market outcomes for women in the 1990’s using household survey data for 18 Latin American countries covering several years per country. The outcomes we analyze include labor force participation rates, the distribution of employment of women across sectors of the economy (formal versus informal) and across industries (agriculture versus non-agriculture), unemployment, and earnings. Overall we document substantial progress made by women in many areas. The gender wage gap is closing steadily in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Brazil and Uruguay, while Colombian women now enjoy higher earnings than those of men. Women’s share of household labor earnings rose from 28% in the early 1990’s to 30% in the late 1990’s. Regarding the quality of jobs, we examine self-employment and employment in small forms as possible indicators of employment in the informal sector. There is no evidence of a systematic increase in self-employment nor in employment in small firms, and contrary to findings by the ILO, we find that the share of female employment accounted by domestic servants did not increase in the 1990’s. Perhaps the salient development of the 1990’s for women in LAC countries was the brisk-paced, secular rise in their labor force participation rates. We examine this development from several angles. We explore the Singh-Goldin-Durand hypothesis that women’s work status changes with economic development. Mammen and Paxson (2000) examine this hypothesis using data for 90 countries, and find that female participation of 45-59 year olds follows a U-shaped profile, with rates rising with GDP per capita increases above $3000. We find that female participation in LAC does not follow the Mammen-Paxson pattern. Next, we examine the role of schooling in explaining the increase in female labor force participation in LAC countries. We find that increases in female schooling account for 30% of the overall increase in female participation rates. The remaining 70% is explained by increases in participation rates at given schooling levels. Finally, we analyze the role of wages, especially the returns to different schooling levels, as a partial explanation for the pattern of changes in labor force participation rates. All of these findings suggest a fair degree of change in the role of women within households and in the labor market. We conclude that the macro economic picture of stagnation for LAC in the 1990s masks non-trivial developments in the division of labor and time allocation by gender.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39885/2/wp500.pd

Women in the LAC Labor Market: The Remarkable 1990’s

We examine levels and trends of labor market outcomes for women in the 1990’s using household survey data for 18 Latin American countries covering several years per country. The outcomes we analyze include labor force participation rates, the distribution of employment of women across sectors of the economy (formal versus informal) and across industries (agriculture versus non-agriculture), unemployment, and earnings. Overall we document substantial progress made by women in many areas. The gender wage gap is closing steadily in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Brazil and Uruguay, while Colombian women now enjoy higher earnings than those of men. Women’s share of household labor earnings rose from 28% in the early 1990’s to 30% in the late 1990’s. Regarding the quality of jobs, we examine self-employment and employment in small forms as possible indicators of employment in the informal sector. There is no evidence of a systematic increase in self-employment nor in employment in small firms, and contrary to findings by the ILO, we find that the share of female employment accounted by domestic servants did not increase in the 1990’s. Perhaps the salient development of the 1990’s for women in LAC countries was the brisk-paced, secular rise in their labor force participation rates. We examine this development from several angles. We explore the Singh-Goldin-Durand hypothesis that women’s work status changes with economic development. Mammen and Paxson (2000) examine this hypothesis using data for 90 countries, and find that female participation of 45-59 year olds follows a U-shaped profile, with rates rising with GDP per capita increases above $3000. We find that female participation in LAC does not follow the Mammen-Paxson pattern. Next, we examine the role of schooling in explaining the increase in female labor force participation in LAC countries. We find that increases in female schooling account for 30% of the overall increase in female participation rates. The remaining 70% is explained by increases in participation rates at given schooling levels. Finally, we analyze the role of wages, especially the returns to different schooling levels, as a partial explanation for the pattern of changes in labor force participation rates. All of these findings suggest a fair degree of change in the role of women within households and in the labor market. We conclude that the macro economic picture of stagnation for LAC in the 1990s masks non-trivial developments in the division of labor and time allocation by gender.labor force participation, earnings, women, Latin America

The Consequences of Speed: Studies of Cavitation During the Mantis Shrimp Strike and the Control of Rapid Deceleration During Toad Landing

There are consequences of moving quickly in this world. Here we investigate how two very different species, mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) and cane toads (Bufo marinus), negotiate forces that result from moving rapidly in different environments. To study the mechanical principles and fluid dynamics of ultrafast power-amplified systems, we built Ninjabot, a physical model of the extremely fast mantis shrimp. While mantis shrimp produce damaging cavitation upon impact with their prey, they do not cavitate during the forward portion of their strike despite extreme speeds. In order to study cavitation onset in non-linear flows common during the mantis shrimp strike, we used Ninjabot to produce strikes of varying kinematics and measured cavitation presence or absence. We found that in rotating and accelerating biological conditions, cavitation inception is best explained only by maximum linear velocity. Thus, studies of cavitation onset in biological conditions only need to focus on maximum velocity. On land, moving quickly requires avoiding or preparing for impact with other objects, often the ground. Within anurans (frogs and toads), a group well known for jumping, cane toads are known to perform particularly controlled landings in which the forelimbs are used to decelerate and balance the body after impact as the hind limbs are lowered to the ground. Here I explore whether and how toads modulate landing preparation depending on hopping and landing conditions and what this can tell us about how they utilize sensory information to help them perform controlled landings. We found that toads modulate three components of impact preparation to specific hop conditions: 1) They position the forelimbs to hit the ground first by protracting and abducting the humeri, 2) They prepare and brace for impact by extending the elbows and activating underlying musculature to stiffen the joint and 3) they control torques during the landing by retracting the hind limbs and rotating the forelimbs to align with the impact angle. By perturbing landing conditions we found that toads tune these components to specific landing conditions with a combination of passive and active control and toads do so by primarily relying on non-visual sensory feedback

Gendering Environmental Assessment: Women’s Participation and Employment Outcomes at Voisey’s Bay

This paper examines the effect of Inuit and Innu women’s participation in environmental assessment (EA) processes on EA recommendations, impact benefit agreement (IBA) negotiations, and women’s employment experiences at Voisey’s Bay Mine, Labrador. The literature on Indigenous participation in EAs has been critiqued for being overly process oriented and for neglecting to examine how power influences EA decision making. In this regard, two issues have emerged as critical to participation in EAs: how EA processes are influenced by other institutions that may help or hinder participation and whether EAs enable marginalized groups within Indigenous communities to influence development outcomes. To address these issues we examine the case of the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Mine in Labrador, in which Indigenous women’s groups made several collective submissions pertaining to employment throughout the EA process. We compare the submissions that Inuit and Innu women’s groups made to the EA panel in the late 1990s to the final EA recommendations and then compare these recommendations to employment-related provisions in the IBA. Finally we compare IBA provisions to workers’ perceptions of gender relations at the mine in 2010. Semi-structured interviews revealed that, notwithstanding the recommendations by women’s groups concerning employment throughout the EA process, women working at the site experienced gendered employment barriers similar to those experienced by women in mining elsewhere. We suggest that the ineffective translation of EA submissions into EA regulations and the IBA, coupled with persistent masculinity within the mining industry, weakened the effect of women’s requests for a comprehensive program to hire and train Indigenous women.Dans cet article, nous nous penchons sur la participation des femmes inuites et innues aux processus d’évaluations environnementales (EE) et sur l’effet de cette participation sur les recommandations des EE, les négociations relatives à l’entente sur les répercussions et les avantages (ERA) et les expériences de travail à la mine de la baie Voisey, au Labrador. La documentation portant sur la participation indigène aux EE fait l’objet de critiques, en ce sens qu’elle accorderait trop d’importance aux processus et pas suffisamment à l’examen de la manière dont le pouvoir influence les décisions prises dans le cadre des EE. Dans cette optique, deux questions critiques se posent par rapport à la participation aux EE : la manière dont les processus des EE sont influencés par d’autres institutions susceptibles de favoriser la participation ou de lui nuire, et à savoir si les EE permettent aux groupes marginalisés à l’intérieur des communautés indigènes d’influencer les résultats des projets d’exploitation. Pour approfondir ces questions, nous avons examiné le cas de la mine d’exploitation du nickel de la baie Voisey au Labrador, pour lequel des groupes de femmes indigènes ont présenté plusieurs mémoires collectifs se rapportant à l’emploi pendant l’EE. Nous comparons les mémoires présentés par les groupes de femmes inuites et innues à la commission de l’évaluation environnementale vers la fin des années 1990 aux recommandations finales de l’EE, puis nous comparons ces recommandations aux dispositions relatives à l’emploi de l’ERA. Et enfin, nous comparons les dispositions de l’ERA aux perceptions des travailleurs en ce qui a trait aux relations entre les deux sexes à la mine en 2010. Des entrevues semi-structurées ont révélé que, nonobstant les recommandations des groupes de femmes en matière d’emploi dans le cadre du processus de l’EE, les femmes qui travaillent à la mine ont connu des obstacles en raison de leur sexe, à l’instar des obstacles que doivent surmonter les autres femmes du domaine de l’exploitation minière. Nous suggérons que la traduction inefficace des mémoires de l’EE en règlements de l’EE et de l’ERA, jumelée à la masculinité qui prévaut au sein de l’industrie minière, ont eu pour effet d’affaiblir les demandes des femmes préconisant un programme exhaustif d’embauche et de formation de femmes indigènes

Investigating the Potential for Nitrate-N Removal in Rhode Island Transient Headwater Streams

Excess nitrogen (N) can have detrimental effects on the environment, particularly in coastal waters where inputs from septic systems and agricultural runoff can lead to algal blooms and hypoxic zones. However, transient headwater streams, which comprise a significant portion of streams in watersheds, may have the potential to remove N given their low flow rates, high surface to volume ratios, long retention times, and hydric soils. We investigated the physical characteristics and N removal capacity of transient headwater streams. Four bromide (Br) and nitrate-N slug tests were conducted in four streams in southern RI. Streams were sampled repeatedly as the plume traveled 30 m. Nitrogen removal was determined by changes in the Br:N ratio from start to end. Three out of the four slug tests demonstrated substantial N removal – 25-65% N removal. Removal occurred towards the end of the slug tests due to hyporheic interactions. Streams with longer retention times demonstrated greater N removal. Transient headwater streams may be important N sinks and future research should focus on determining the in-stream processes that facilitate N removal

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs about the Role of Definition in the Learning of Mathematics

Answering a call to emphasize the act of defining over the learning of definitions, we have shifted the content of a geometry course for preservice elementary teachers (PSETs) away from comparing and applying pre-written classification structures to classroom episodes centered on authoring definitions for special quadrilaterals. PSETs complete activities using geometry software, and collaboratively create definitions for specific quadrilaterals. In order to fully understand the potential of this curricular shift, we asked preservice elementary mathematics teachers’ to share their perceptions of the process of writing mathematical definitions. Data from participant reflections were analyzed for themes related to mathematical definition and the act of defining. The framework that resulted from iterative discussions by the researchers examined beliefs about the nature of definition and mathematical empathy (Araki, 2015). Findings also suggest that beliefs about authority and positioning students as authors of mathematics are associated with mathematical empathy. Experiences related to the process of defining enabled PSETs to see far greater subjectivity in the discipline of mathematics and to consider, perhaps for the first time, that they, too, were both able and deserving of becoming authors of mathematical ideas

Influenza Vaccination Of The Older Adult Patient And Documentation By The Healthcare Provider

The purpose of this project was to review the treatment prescribed by providers and evaluate the return rate for each treatment

Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 24, No. 1

• Some Early Moravian Builders in America • Old Order Mennonite Family Life in the East Penn Valley • Historic Yellow Springs: The Restoration of an American Spa • The Use of Speech at Two Auctions • Pennsylvania German Astronomy and Astrology IX: Johann Friederich Schmidt • Courtship and Marriage: Folk-Cultural Questionnaire No. 36https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/pafolklifemag/1060/thumbnail.jp

The delivery of heavy menstrual bleeding services in England and Wales after publication of national guidelines: a survey of hospitals.

BACKGROUND: In 2007-2008, two UK-based organisations, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, published guidelines for the management of care and organisation of outpatient services for women with heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). In 2010, this study was conducted to provide an update on guideline-related services provided in England and Wales, and whether they are consistent with national clinical guidelines two to three years after publication. METHODS: An organisational survey of outpatient gynaecology clinics was conducted of 221 hospitals in 154 acute National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England and Wales. A questionnaire was distributed to all hospitals to examine provision of diagnostic and therapeutic services in outpatient settings. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize results. RESULTS: The response rate was 100%. For diagnosis, 80% of hospitals had ultrasound, 87% had hysteroscopy, and 98% had endometrial biopsy available. Overall, 76% of hospitals provided an information leaflet, 8% referred patients to a website for information, and 20% did not provide any written information. A dedicated menstrual bleeding clinic was present in 38% of hospitals. Only 30% of hospitals reported that they have a local written protocol regarding the care and management of women with HMB. CONCLUSION: The majority of hospitals offer appropriate diagnostic and surgical services for women with HMB. However, local protocol development may not reflect the local services. It may be that hospitals are finding it difficult to summon resources to provide clinics for women with menstrual disorders