Why have the gender divisions of work and care been so slow to change?

Changing gender relations has meant that young people increasingly expect to share paid work and care in their relationships. Yet there is continued evidence of ‘gender fates’. This can be seen in fewer girls than boys choosing STEM subjects at school, the dominance of men in trades occupations and women in early childhood roles, the predominance of women choosing to work part-time hours, and persistent sex discrimination in the workplace

Men are targets of sexual harassment at work far more commonly than we assume

More than 1 in 10 complaints of sexual harassment at work are reported by men, writes Paula McDonal

Backlash against gender equality is arising in new forms

Backlash is a negative, hostile or aggressive reaction to a political idea. The term has been applied to civil and race rights. Recently however, it has been prominent in politics, business and the media, as an opposing stance to initiatives designed to advance women’s rights and social status

Does profiling employees online overstep the boundaries?

The challenge is to balance employer needs with ensuring safe and private online spaces for staff, argue Paula McDonald, Peter O’Connor and Paul Thompso

The usefulness of health education materials in GP waiting rooms: cross-sectional study

Background: More than half of patients in the UK wait between 5 and 15 minutes before seeing the GP, and this time in the waiting room (WR) provides an ideal opportunity for patient education. Aim: To assess patients’ perceptions of the usefulness, noticeability and attractiveness of health education materials (HEMs); and the variety, number, topics, design and accessibility of these HEMs. Method: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed to patients in the WR to assess their use of health information and perceptions of HEMs. A survey measured the availability of HEMs in the WR and evaluated their quality against 16 accessibility and design criteria. Results: A total of 556 questionnaires were completed (response rate 97.9%). On average, WRs contained 72 posters covering 23 topics, and 53 leaflets covering 24 topics. Multivariate analysis showed that patients’ perception of usefulness was significantly associated with reading in the WR, using written HEMs, and not having a university degree; whilst noticeability was associated with reading in the WR, and being female. Attractiveness was associated with not having a university degree and shorter waiting time. Conclusion: This study suggests that a wide variety of HEMs are available, and that many patients find them useful and noticeable, however, fewer find them well-designed and attractive. Future research should focus on the effectiveness of generally available HEMs at changing knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviours; and utilising technology to deliver innovative means of providing patient health information

Profiling employees online: shifting public-private boundaries in organisational life

Profiling involves the collection and use of online information about prospective and current employees to evaluate their fitness for and in the job. Workplace and legal studies suggest an expanded use of profiling and significant legal/professional implications for HRM practitioners, yet scant attention has been afforded to the boundaries of such practices. In this study, profiling is framed as a terrain on which employees and employers assert asymmetrical interests. Using survey data from large samples in Australia and the UK, the study investigates the prevalence and outcomes of profiling; the extent that employees assert a right to privacy versus employer rights to engage in profiling; the extent that organisations codify profiling practices; and employee responses in protecting online information. The findings contribute to a small and emerging body of evidence addressing how social media conduct at work is reconstituting and reshaping the boundaries between public and private spheres. Keywords: profiling; public-private boundaries; social media at work; employee privac

Employee dissent on social media and organizational discipline

What kind of surveillance of employees is evident today? The rights of employers to police and act punitively with regard to workplace dissent and misbehaviour have become contentious legal, policy and ethical issues. Drawing on survey responses from employees in the UK and Australia, this study investigates the scope and scale of employee dissent in relation to critical online comments and the private use of social media during work time. The findings reveal a sufficient pool of misbehaviours, albeit that they are emergent and uneven. Also evident were some apparently contradictory responses with respect to employer rights to profile and discipline, at the same time as asserting employee rights to voice and private online identities. The findings contribute to knowledge of how much and what kinds of online dissent exist in the ambiguous space between the public sphere of work and the private lives of individual employees and what employers do about it

Catalytic, Conductive Bipolar Membrane Interfaces through Layer-by-Layer Deposition for the Design of Membrane-Integrated Artificial Photosynthesis Systems

In the presence of an electric field, bipolar membranes (BPMs) are capable of initiating water disassociation (WD) within the interfacial region, which can make water splitting for renewable energy in the presence of a pH gradient possible. In addition to WD catalytic efficiency, there is also the need for electronic conductivity in this region for membrane-integrated artificial photosynthesis (AP) systems. Graphene oxide (GO) was shown to catalyze WD and to be controllably reduced, which resulted in electronic conductivity. Layer-by-layer (LbL) film deposition was employed to improve GO film uniformity in the interfacial region to enhance WD catalysis and, through the addition of a conducting polymer in the process, add electronic conductivity in a hybrid film. Three different deposition methods were tested to optimize conducting polymer synthesis with the oxidant in a metastable solution and to yield the best film properties. It was found that an approach that included substrate dipping in a solution containing the expected final monomer/oxidant ratio provided the most predictable film growth and smoothest films (by UV/Vis spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy/scanning electron microscopy, respectively), whereas dipping in excess oxidant or co-spraying the oxidant and monomer produced heterogeneous films. Optimized films were found to be electronically conductive and produced a membrane ohmic drop that was acceptable for AP applications. Films were integrated into the interfacial region of BPMs and revealed superior WD efficiency (≥1.4 V at 10 mA cm⁻²) for thinner films (<10 bilayers≈100 nm) than for either the pure GO catalyst or conducting polymer individually, which indicated that there was a synergistic effect between these materials in the structure configured by the LbL method.National Science Foundation (Grant CHE‐1305124