POVERTY AMONG WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA: FEMINIZATION OR OVER-REPRESENTATION?

We discuss four different concepts of feminization of poverty and analyze household survey data to verify if there is an undergoing feminization of poverty in eight Latin American countries, according to each of these concepts. We also verify if our results are sensible to changes in values of poverty lines and to different scenarios of intra- household inequalities. We conclude that women may be over-represented among the poor but there is no clear evidence of a recent and widespread feminization of poverty in the Latin American countries studied. The implication of this conclusion for policymaking in the region is that issues such as achieving the economic autonomy of women are perhaps more important to the egalitarian agenda than the feminization of poverty.

Poverty among women in Latin America: Feminization or over-representation?

We propose two different concepts of feminization of poverty and analyze household survey data to verify if there is an ongoing feminization of poverty in eight Latin American countries, according to each of these concepts. We also verify if our results respond to changes in values of poverty lines and to different scenarios of intra-household inequalities, concluding that poverty may be higher among women, but there is no clear evidence of a recent and widespread feminization of poverty in the countries studied.Feminization of poverty, Gender inequalities, Poverty, Female headed households, Latin America

Voice Feminization: Voice Therapy vs. Surgical Intervention: A Systematic Review

Abstract Purpose: Transgender individuals often seek to alter their vocal characteristics. For Male to Female (MtF) transgender individuals, attaining a feminine voice may be particularly challenging. The objective of this systematic review is to determine whether MtF transgender individuals who receive voice feminization therapy alone or Wendler’s Glottoplasty (WG) surgical intervention with subsequent voice therapy yield greater outcomes in frequency and self-perception. Method: A systematic review of the literature was conducted by using PubMed and Ovid to search terms pertaining to voice feminization. The articles were reviewed and appraised by the authors for inclusionary criteria, exclusionary criteria, and quality. Inclusionary criteria included: 1) adult MtF Transgender individuals, 2) pre and post measures of fundamental frequency (fo), 3) post puberty age, 4) measure of perception of femininity, and 5) patients who underwent WG (articles pertaining to surgical intervention only). Results: A total of 82 articles were identified and 12 met inclusionary criteria for this systematic review. Overall, the quality of the studies was moderate. Outcome measures included frequency range and frequency gain. The authors were unable to compare measurements of self-perception and perception of femininity due to the variability in assessments. Conclusions: Patients who opted for surgical intervention experienced a greater increase in fo but a decrease in frequency range. Conversely, patients who participated in voice feminization therapy alone were found to exhibit smaller gains in fo and an increase in frequency range. This implies that both voice feminization therapy and surgical intervention are effective methods for increasing the frequency of voice. Limitations of this research include the subjective nature of self-perception measures, variability in measurements of perception of femininity, and overall limited research regarding this population.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/csdms/1009/thumbnail.jp

Are Women Taking over the Farm in China?

Development practitioners in the West have proclaimed that a ``feminization of agriculture'' is occurring in the developing world. In this paper, I use household survey data collected in rural China to empirically test whether or not women have been doing an increasing amount of farmwork. I find exactly the opposite-- if anything, the proportion of farmwork being done by women is declining over the late 1990s. Furthermore, I analyze the demographic composition of the farm labor force and find that the future feminization of agriculture is unlikely.Women, agriculture, China, farm labor

Are Women Taking over the Farm in China?

Development practitioners in the West have proclaimed that a "feminization of agriculture" is occurring in the developing world. In this paper, I use household survey data collected in rural China to empirically test whether or not women have been doing an increasing amount of farmwork. I find exactly the opposite-- if anything, the proportion of farmwork being done by women is declining over the late 1990s. Furthermore, I analyze the demographic composition of the farm labor force and find that the future feminization of agriculture is unlikely.Women, agriculture, China, farm labor

Feminization and severe pancytopenia caused by testicular neoplasia in a cryptorchid dog

In this case report, a paraneoplastic syndrome caused by testicular neoplasia in a ten-year-old cryptorchid dog is described. Feminization and pancytopenia were observed, resulting from the testicular neoplastic production of estrogens. A diagnosis of testicular tumor and associated bone marrow suppression was made by ultrasonography and blood examination, with estrogen blood levels being severely elevated. Urinalysis revealed a urinary tract infection. Castration was performed together with a blood transfusion, and antibiotic treatment was started. After an initial improvement, the dog died suddenly after approximately three weeks. In this report, the importance is highlighted of identifying clinical signs associated with feminization in intact male dogs at an early stage, to avoid severe, potentially irreversible, hematological consequences due to bone marrow suppression. Elective orchidectomy of both testes is highly recommended in cryptorchid dogs as neoplastic transformation of the undescended testis may occur, with potentially fatal outcome

Revealing gender-specific costs of STEM in an extended Roy model of major choice

We derive sharp bounds on the non consumption utility component in an extended Roy model of sector selection. We interpret this non consumption utility component as a compensating wage differential. The bounds are derived under the assumption that potential wages in each sector are (jointly) stochastically monotone with respect to an observed selection shifter. The lower bound can also be interpreted as the minimum cost subsidy necessary to change sector choices and make them observationally indistinguishable from choices made under the classical Roy model of sorting on potential wages only. The research is motivated by the analysis of women's choice of university major and their underrepresentation in mathematics intensive fields. With data from a German graduate survey, and using the proportion of women on the STEM faculty at the time of major choice as our selection shifter, we find high costs of choosing the STEM sector for women from the former West Germany, especially for low realized incomes and low proportion of women on the STEM faculty, interpreted as a scarce presence of role models

The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors and the Evolution of Health Care in America

[Excerpt] This book is a case study of one profession that plays a key role in the health care sector, which now represents about one seventh of the U.S. economy. It examines the most dramatic demographic change in this sector in the last century. But the issues we raise are likely to be of interest more broadly for what they say about the changing roles of women in contemporary society. Women\u27s entry into medicine is taken as dramatic evidence that the barriers to opportunity for women are rapidly falling in America. Does the experience of female physicians to date bear out this optimistic view? An alternative view is that gender roles remain deeply entrenched in our institutions and culture. Specifically, the gender division of household labor continues to constrain the choices of all women. The trade-offs between work and family may be clearest in the most demanding professions, such as law and medicine, which require a high degree of professional devotion. Our study builds on the fine histories of women in medicine written by Walsh, Morantz-Sanchez, and More. The analysis presented here focuses on the period since 1970, thus complementing the important studies of Bowman and colleagues and Bickel. Lorber examined the experiences of the generation of women who pioneered the transformation of the profession. With the benefit of additional decades of perspective, we are in a position to examine whether the role of gender in medicine is changing

“Care drain”. Explaining bias in theorizing women’s migration

Migrant women are often stereotyped. Some scholars associate the feminization of migration with domestic work and criticize the “care drain” as a new form of imperialism that the First World imposes on the Third World. However, migrant women employed as domestic workers in Northern America and Europe represent only 2% of migrant women worldwide and cannot be seen as characterizing the “feminization of migration”. Why are migrant domestic workers overestimated? This paper explores two possible sources of bias. The first is sampling: conclusions about “care drain” are often generalized from small samples of domestic workers. The second stems from the affect heuristic: imagining children left behind by migrant mothers provokes strong feelings of injustice which trump other considerations. The paper argues that neither source of bias is unavoidable and finds evidence of gender stereotypes in the “care drain” construa

Media Discourse and the Feminization of Poverty

Source diversity models suggest that by using non-conventional, non-official sources for news content, the prevailing perceptions about poor people and their needs would be undermined in news coverage. This study found that major newspapers are making efforts to diversify the sources quoted in their coverage of poverty issues. However, the portrayals of poor people have not changed, particularly for women and people of color. Results of this study suggest that source diversity research must go further to explore how sources are used to address the problems of the poor and how media influence public perceptions of public policy related to welfare and welfare reform