“Overwhelmed and out of my depth”: Responses from early career midwives in the United Kingdom to the Work,Health and Emotional Lives of Midwives study

BackgroundEfforts to resolve the longstanding and growing staffing crisis in midwifery in the United Kingdom have been hampered by very poor retention rates, with early career midwives the most likely to report burnout and intention to leave the profession.AimsTo establish the key, self-described factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work for early career midwives in the United Kingdom, and suggest appropriate and effective retention strategies.MethodsThematic analysis was undertaken on a subset of free text responses from midwives who had been qualified for five years or less, collected as part of the United Kingdom arm of the Work, Health and Emotional Lives of Midwives project.FindingsMidwives described feeling immense pressure caused by an unremittingly heavy workload and poor staffing. Where relationships with colleagues were strong, they were described as a protective factor against stress; conversely, negative working relationships compounded pressures. Despite the challenges, many of the midwives reported taking great pleasure in their work, describing it as a source of pride and self-esteem. Midwives valued being treated as individuals and having some control over their shift pattern and area of work.DiscussionThese results, which reveal the strain on early career midwives, are consistent with the findings of other large studies on midwives’ wellbeing. All available levers should be used to retain and motivate existing staff, and recruit new staff; in the meantime, considerable creativity and effort should be exercised to improve working conditions.ConclusionThis analysis provides a ‘roadmap’ for improving staff wellbeing and potentially retention.     

“Open to all and everybody”? The Irish Film Board: accounting for the scarcity of women screenwriters

Despite the many social and cultural changes that have occurred in Irish society since the Irish Film Board was re-established in 1993, the Irish film industry remains strongly male dominated. Specifically, Irish women constitute a minority of produced screenwriters and writer/directors. This article contributes to an understanding of the discursive resources that key decision makers in the Irish Film Board draw upon in order to talk about gender. A number of interpretative repertoires are used to rationalize its position in relation to the dearth of women screenwriters, four of which are examined here: evasion and deflection; gender neutrality; project-led funding; and a difficulty making sense of entrenched gender issues, articulated here as “I don’t know.” Within the respondents’ repertoires an ideological dilemma can be identified in the conceptualization of gender as both relevant and irrelevant.     

What Happened to the Society of Leisure? Of the Gap Between the “Haves” and “Have Nots” (Canadian Time Use and Well-Being Trends)

Canadian time use trends of the past 30 years are examined, using General Social Survey data collected by Statistics Canada in 1981, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2005, and 2010. The article analyses changes in the allocation of time to paid work, domestic work, personal needs, and free time, as well as accompanying changes in perceived time pressure and subjective well-being. The article addresses four questions: (1) Do objectively measured time use trends support optimistic forecasts of the 1960s that transition to post-industrial societies is accompanied by substantial gains of free time? (2) Did the time use changes of the past 30 years affect different population and lifecycle groups evenly or asymmetrically? (3) Is there an accord or discord between the objective measures of time use and subjective feelings of time pressure? (4) What are the emotional, and socio-political implications of the observed time use trends?     

Mobility, information, and bequest: The “other side” of the equal division puzzle

There is substantial evidence that parental bequests to children are typically equal in the US—a regularity inconsistent with the predictions of standard bequest models. The prior explanation for this puzzle is parents’ desire to signal equal affection given children’s incomplete information of parental preferences. However, parents also have incomplete information regarding children preferences—which has not been considered. Using a strategic bequest framework, we show that when parents have sufficient uncertainty regarding children’s relocation returns, a separating equilibrium where parents reward attentive heirs with larger bequests is precluded. Such uncertainty appears consistent with conditions in the contemporary USA.     

The Stages of Human Capital and Economic Growth: Does the Direction of Causality Matter for the Rich and the Poor?

This paper demonstrates that key models of human mobility across several disciplines can be considered as specific cases of a broader conceptualisation of mobility in terms of its contribution to wellbeing. It is argued that this wellbeing perspective offers important advantages for the formulation of policy in areas that must respond to mobility in cross-cultural contexts, and particularly in regard to policy relating to highly mobile, indigenous peoples. An applied example is provided through a discussion of how this conceptualisation of mobility offers a different understanding of the mobility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, one that may have led to superior policy outcomes.     

The “Sassy Woman” and the “Performing Man”: Heterosexual casual sex advice and the (re)constitution of gendered subjectivities

Media forums that provide “sex advice” are a rich source of (sexual) information for heterosexual individuals and have been critically examined for the ways in which they construct heterosexuality (and sexual subjectivities). The representations of (heterosexual) casual sex are also prevalent across the mass media. This paper uses a Foucauldian/poststructuralist mode of discourse analysis to explore how casual sex “advice” in three self-help books (two aimed at women, one aimed at men), and online advice articles, constituted casual sex and masculine and feminine heterosexual subjectivities. Four main (profoundly gendered) subject positions were identified in the texts: the “strategic man”; the “performing man”; the “sassy woman”; and the “vulnerable woman.” It is argued that although some alternative ways of constituting heterosexual identities were provided (particularly for women), gender difference was not only implicated in such advice but also, at times, crudely exaggerated. The implications of these representations are discussed in relation to contemporary heterosexualities, heterosexual sexual identities, and heterosexual power relations.     

“His” and “Hers”: Meeting the Economic Bar to Marriage

Scholars have suggested that low-income parents avoid marriage because they have not met the so-called economic bar to marriage. The economic bar is multidimensional, referring to a bundle of financial achievements that determine whether couples feel ready to wed. Using the Building Strong Families data set of low-income parents (n = 4,444), we operationalized this qualitative concept into a seven-item index and examined whether couples who met the economic bar by achieving the majority of the items were more likely to marry than couples who did not. Meeting the bar was associated with a two-thirds increase in marriage likelihood. The bar was not positively associated with cohabitation, suggesting that it applies specifically to marriage. When we examined different definitions of the bar based on whether the mother, father, or both parents contributed items, all variants were associated with marriage, even if the bar was based on the mother’s economic accomplishments alone. When mothers contributed to the economic bar, they reported significantly higher relationship quality. Our results reinforce the importance of the multidimensional economic bar for marriage entry, highlighting the role of maternal economic contributions in low-income relationships.     

Negative population growth: how to go about it? (Letter to the editor)

It proves an interesting exercise to try to determine the effects of a national policy of government control developed on the basis of the need to conserve scarce resources, lessen environmental pollution, and to reduce the U.S. population to 1/2 of the 1970 figures within 100 years without increasing the risks of death. Let it additionally be assumed that in order to minimize the required reduction of fertility that there be no net migration. At the end of the reduction process, the stationary state in stable equilibrium might hopefully be achieved. If these are the goals, the process would include 1) reduction of the annual stream of births immediately to the number that would ultimately be required to sustain a population 1/2 as large as the present number and 2) smooth decline of the totals but with constituent age groups shifting drastically as the sharply reduced stream of births spreads upward through the span of life, with those 65 years and older making up 12% of the population. To obtain a fixed annual stream of births from sharply changing numbers of women of childbearing age would require rapid and drastic changes in the rates of childbearing. The same reduced population could be obtained from a system involving less drastic changes in the age composition, but these means would not be positive ones for older individuals. Both fertility and age distribution could move more smoothly if the mortality risks increased or with considerable emigration of the aged. Other means of reducing the population to 1/2 the present size within 100 years would create even more turbulence in the age distribution and rates of childbearing than those just discussed.     

Income and “Outcomes” for Elderly: DO the Poor have A Poorer Life?

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between income and living conditions and well-being of elderly. The best from two worlds is used for this purpose: a Danish survey covering 1440 elderly aged 72 and 77 from 1997, connected to reliable register information on income, 1988–1996. Indicators of physical activity, social and solitary activities, social contact, functional capability, loneliness and psychological well-being are constructed from the survey. Ordered logistic models are estimated controlling for demographics, education, previous occupation and whether the elderly are still working. It is found that elderly with low income levels have poorer functional capability, lower physical activity and poorer psychological well-being whereas social contact and social activities show no relationship with income. The relationship with income vanishes for solitary activities and loneliness when adding control variables. Having established that robust relations exist between income and some measures of well-being of elderly, we turn to an investigation of causality. Simultaneous models are estimated to assess whether the income relationship can be causally interpreted for functional capability and physical activity. The results show that it cannot be rejected that the income effects are causal, although care should be taken when interpreting results. We finally address our findings in the light of current and future changes regarding the size and economic well-being of the elderly population.     

The future in their hands: Graduating student midwives’ plans,job satisfaction and the desire to work in midwifery continuity of care

BackgroundMidwife-led continuity of care models benefit women and the midwives who work in them. Australian graduate midwives are familiar with, and educated to provide, continuity of care to women although the opportunity to work exclusively in positions providing continuity of care on graduation is uncommon.AimTo explore the immediate and aspirational employment plans and workforce choices, reasons for staying in midwifery and perceptions around factors likely to influence job satisfaction of midwives about to graduate from one Australian university during the years 2012–2016.MethodsThis longitudinal study draws on survey responses from five cohorts of midwifery students in their final year of study.FindingsNinety five out of 137 midwifery students responded to the survey. Almost nine out of ten respondents either aspired to work in a continuity of care model or recognised that they would gain job satisfaction by providing continuity of care to women. Factors leading to job satisfaction identified included making a difference to the women for whom they care, working in models of care which enabled them to provide women with ‘the care I want to give’, and having the ability to make autonomous midwifery decisions.ConclusionAligning early graduate work experiences with continuity of care models may have a positive impact on the confidence and professional development of graduate midwives, which in turn may lead to greater satisfaction and retention among a workforce already committed to supporting the maternity healthcare reform agenda.     

The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms of the National Front and Swiss People’s Party

The article explores and compares how the online communication of the National Front (FN) and Swiss People’s Party (SVP) visualise and define “the people” and “proximity to the people” in the wake of the Swiss federal elections and the French regional elections in 2015. Considerations based on netnography, discourse analysis and visual culture studies inform the corpus-based approach of the study. The results of the analysis show significant differences in the way each party represents itself: the FN visually frames itself as a party for the people whereas the SVP portrays itself as a party of the people. This is due to distinct ways of depicting the relation between party representatives and citizens as well as the “in-group”.     

Application of the “Benefit-Of-the-Doubt” Approach for the Construction of a Digital Access Indicator: A Revaluation of the “Digital Access Index”

The use of composite indicators as a tool for ranking and making decisions is ever increasing in a world marked by the inequalities and competition in all domains. However, the dependence of countries ranking on the weighing scheme used to aggregate individual indices or sub-indicators, most of the time set by experts/stakeholders may weaken the credibility of composite indicators. One method which is able to overcome these limits is the “Data Envelopment Analysis” approach, particularly named “Benefit-Of-the-Doubt” in the context of composite indicators’ construction. We propose a revaluation of the Digital Access Index given that Information technology is the most important factor driving improvement in a wide array of areas critical for the quality of life for individuals as well as societies. We have shown that this method is more suitable for identifying trends and drawing attention to particular issues and also for setting policy priorities. In fact, the weights of the individual indices, used to compute the composite indicators are based on the data itself and are proper for the country under consideration. These weights contain adequate information in order to help policy-makers to better understand the nature of the new innovation economy and the types of public policies needed to drive innovation, productivity and broad-based prosperity for its citizens.