Canada's Most Wanted: Pioneer Women on the Western Prairies*

Cet article analyse les expériences des femmes pendant la colonisation des Prairies au Canada en mettant l'accent sur leur travail, sur leurs aptitudes et sur les capacites d'adaptation a l'environnement naturel et aux obstacles économiques auxquels ces femmes et leurs families se sont mesurés. Bien que les attitudes patriarcales domi‐nantes, la législation et les principes économiques aient quelque peu occulté les contributions des femmes, les efforts qu'elles ont déployés en Saskatchewan illustrent la «souplesse» dont ont fait preuve les fermières dans l'accomplissement de tâches productives et non productives. L'article démontre que cette souplesse a constitué un facteur déterminant de la survie des fermes familiales et, par là, du succès de l'industrie du blé. This article analyzes women's experiences during the settlement of the western prairie region of Canada. Attention is placed on their labour, skills and ability to adapt to the natural environment and the economic obstacles that they and their families encountered. While prevailing patriarchal attitudes, legislation and economic principles obscured women's contributions, the efforts of women in Saskatchewan are used to highlight the “flexibility” exhibited by farm women in performing productive and non‐productive labour. It is argued that this flexibility was critical to the survival of family farms, and thus to the success of the wheat economy.     

From childhood to young adulthood: the importance of self-esteem during childhood for occupational achievements among young men and women

This study investigates the impact of self-esteem during childhood on men’s and women’s occupational prestige in young adulthood. By combining first-hand information from parents in the Swedish Level-of-Living surveys (LNU) 2000 and their children in the Child-LNU in 2000 and the follow-up study in LNU-2010, we are able to assess how self-esteem during adolescence is related to occupational prestige in adulthood. Multivariate analyses were used to determine whether associations between self-esteem (global and domain-specific) in childhood (aged 10–18 years) and occupational prestige in young adulthood (aged 20–28) exist and, if so, what the magnitudes of these associations are for each respective gender.

For women, there is a positive association between confidence in mathematics and prestige, even when accounting for actual math grades. Global self-esteem is positively related to later occupational prestige as well. For men, self-esteem is unrelated to occupational prestige. Only actual performance in mathematics is important for men’s occupational achievements.

These results indicate the importance of taking gender differences into account when investigating how self-esteem is related to outcomes in young adulthood. A possible implication is the importance of focusing on the development of self-esteem among children, particularly girls, in school.     

A new age of old age?: Gerotranscendence and the re-enchantment of aging

Gerotranscendence theory is reviewed regarding its content, development, diffusion, impact, empirical results, and ontology. Gerotranscendence theory describes a “natural” alteration of consciousness in old age leading to “wisdom” and a qualitative break with a mid-life rational and materialist world-view. According to the theory, gerotranscendence is obstructed by a lack of alternative values and roles in old age in Western societies. Theoretically and in clinical practice, gerotranscendence theory has been linked to psychoanalysis. It is concluded that gerotranscendence theory is empirically weak, has parallels in the New Age movement as well as in romantic Orientalism, and can be understood as an attempt to re-enchant aging.     

Social Services Provided for Physically Abused Children: A Four-Year Follow-Up Study in Sweden

This paper examines contacts that Swedish physically abused children have with the Department of Social Services (DSS) 4 years after a physical abuse incident has been reported to the police. The children’s files have been investigated in an effort to evaluate which child and parent characteristics led DSS to make interventions for the 69 children still in need of assistance, 4 years after the original abuse incident. Intervention by the DSS prior to the reported abuse incident increased the odds 18 times that a child would still receive interventions 4 years after the incident, and the presence of a mentally ill mother increased the odds 11 times.     

Is Eradication of the Pinewood Nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) Likely? An Evaluation of Current Contingency Plans

The pinewood nematode (PWN) is one of the worst tree‐killing exotic pests in East‐Asian countries. The first European record of establishment in Portugal in 1999 triggered extensive surveys and contingency plans for eradication in European countries, including immediate removal of large areas of conifer host trees. Using Norway as an example, we applied a simulation model to evaluate the chance of successful eradication of a hypothetical introduction by the current contingency plan in a northern area where wilting symptoms are not expected to occur. Despite a highly variable spread of nematode infestations in space and time, the probability of successful eradication in 20 years was consistently low (mean 0.035, SE 0.02). The low success did not change significantly by varying the biological parameters in sensitivity analyses (SA), probably due to the late detection of infestations by the survey (mean 14.3 years). SA revealed a strong influence of management parameters. However, a high probability of eradication required unrealistic measures: achieving an eradication probability of 0.99 in 20 years required 10,000 survey samples per year and a host tree removal radius of 8,000 m around each detection point.     

Vulnerable children's health as described in investigations of reported children

This study explores whether the social services weigh in health aspects, and what these may be, when investigating reported children's life situation. Information about physical and psychological health aspects for 259 children in 272 investigations was included. Overall, information about children's health was limited. Problematic emotions were the most commonly reported health aspect in the investigations, whereas suicidal thoughts, self‐harm behaviour and gastrointestinal and renal diseases were mentioned least of all. A cluster analysis revealed that the low level of health information group included the largest sample of data and consisted of investigations with minimal information about children's health. The three other cluster groups, Neurological diseases and psychosomatic symptoms, Emotional health and Physical and psychological health and destructive behaviour, consisted of investigations conducted mostly according to the model called Children's Needs In Focus (BBIC, in Swedish, Barns Behov i Centrum). Although these investigations also produced limited information, they provided more than those assessed as having a low level of information about health aspects. The conclusion is that it is necessary to increase information about health aspects in investigations if social welfare systems are to be able to fulfil their ambition of supporting vulnerable children's need of health care.     

Social services provided for physically abused children in Sweden: background factors and interventions

This study aims at describing and analysing what kinds of social services are provided for physically abused children in Sweden. The social services files were examined for 113 children under 15 years of age (67 boys and 46 girls) who had been reported to the police as having been physically abused by a parent or equivalent caretaker in a particular police district. The children's social services files indicated an increased risk of a parental abusive behaviour prior to the abuse incident. There had been former interventions in 81 per cent of the families and previous reports on neglect or abuse in 44 per cent of the 113 families. After the abuse incident, investiga-tions were opened in 80 per cent of the cases. The three most common interventions were placement in foster care, referrals to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service and Social Services support contacts. The study shows that there was a tendency towards more proactive work with injured children, children of immigrant parents and children of mentally ill parents.     

Gender,Parenthood and Wage Differences: The Importance of Time-Consuming Job Characteristics

Using data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (2000, 2010), we investigate how the gender wage gap varies with occupational prestige and family status and also examine the extent to which this gap is explained by time-consuming working conditions. In addition, we investigate whether there is an association between parenthood, job characteristics and wage (as differentiated by gender). The analyses indicate that there are gender differences regarding prestige-based pay-offs among parents that are partly explained by fathers’ greater access to employment characterized by time-consuming conditions. Separate analyses for men and women demonstrate the presence of a marriage wage premium for both genders, although only men have a parenthood wage premium. This fatherhood premium is however only present in high-prestigious occupations. Compared with childless men, fathers are also more advantaged in terms of access to jobs with time-consuming working conditions, but the wage gap between fathers and childless men is not explained by differences in access to such working conditions.