The adoption of women’s legislative caucuses worldwide

Recent decades have witnessed the rise, across a wide range of countries, of political institutions designed to promote gender equality and women’s political representation. Existing studies have shown how international diffusion processes have contributed to the adoption of two kinds of such institutions – gender mainstreaming and gender quotas. Mounting evidence suggests that institutional reforms within legislatures constitute the latest wave of gendered institutional reform. This article identifies and explains trends in the adoption of one kind of gender-focused parliamentary institution – women’s legislative caucuses (WLCs). We use a discrete time duration model to assess the effect of several factors on WLC establishment. While there is theoretical room to expect diffusion, structural and institutional variables to affect the likelihood of caucus adoption, we find the strongest empirical support for diffusion and institutional factors. A parliament’s likelihood of adopting a WLC rises when sub-regional peers have created WLCs, when women’s international non-governmental organizations are active in the country and when the country has implemented a gender quota. Understanding the factors that affect the adoption of gender-focused parliamentary institutions is critically important, we argue, since such bodies provide space to confront masculinized institutionalized rules and norms.     

‘He enjoyed it more than I did’!: young British Sikh women negotiating safe sex in heterosexual encounters

ABSTRACT

Sex education and relationship strategy of the U.K. allows parents to withdraw their children from sex education, which has left many young people especially those from Black Minority and Ethnic communities with low or no sex education. Similarly, the government's policy environment enables faith schools to teach these subjects under the tenets of their faith. This empirical research was carried out in South-West London using 12 qualitative interviews with women and men (ages 18–20 years) discusses young women's experiences of their first sexual encounter who navigate their reputations, relationships as well as negotiate safe sex in the absence of appropriate relationships and sex education. Sex education not only brings into focus sensitivities around gender but also tensions around religion in the U.K. Evidence from the study suggests that despite the importance placed by the Indian community on maintaining virginity, young women asserted that religion and culture did not prohibit them from exploring their sexuality. In this study, the priority is to present young women's voices and experience of sexual encounters.     

Gender of the immediate manager and women's wages: The importance of managerial position

One argument for increasing female representation in management is the expectation that female managers will be particularly beneficial for female employees through, e.g., role modeling, mentoring or providing other incentives to enhance female productivity. We explore this issue by analyzing the association between women's wages and the gender of their immediate managers using Swedish matched employee-employer data from 2010. Contrary to the expected positive association, we find that wages are overall 3% lower for female employees with a female instead of male manager. However, dividing the sample by managerial position and controlling for the sorting of employees with respect to, e.g., non-cognitive traits, work tasks, family commitment and establishment gender composition, the negative association is found only for female employees working for lower-level managers, not for women with a manager at the highest rank. One possible explanation could be a difference in decision-making power if lower-level female managers have more limited resources for their subordinates compared to lower-level male managers.     

论性别平等的宪法保护

随着社会的进步与发展，性别平等原则普遍进入各国宪法，中国也位列其中。但显性和隐性的性别歧视对实现真正意义上的男女平等提出了新的挑战。从宪法中，发现存在的问题，找到解决的措施是我们实现性别平等的根据，也是构建和谐社会的根本。     

MNCs and micro-entrepreneurship in emerging economies: The case of Avon in the Amazon

This article examines the activities of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the direct sales industry through an ethnographic case study of micro-entrepreneurship in the Brazilian Amazon. In large emerging economies, intra-country heterogeneity poses challenges for MNCs. Because national trends often obscure regional variations, the case study highlights the realities of the rural Amazon, and the specific challenges and potential for MNCs. Findings from the case study support three propositions. The development of direct sales networks in remote areas facilitates: (1) additional entrepreneurship, and encourages a progression from necessity to opportunity entrepreneurship; (2) social change in gender norms, including higher level of female empowerment and decision-making within families and communities; and (3) a reconciliation of local and global values on beauty and fashion for customers, leading to stronger brand relationships. By leveraging micro-entrepreneurship, MNCs can compete with local firms, even in rural areas lacking basic infrastructure, to the benefit of communities and individuals.     

浅议两性和谐发展

构建社会主义和谐社会已成普遍需求。作为社会结构中最普遍、最稳定的因素，两性关系是否和谐融洽，在一定意义上决定了社会的稳定发展。传统的社会规范和价值要求，长期使得两性屈从于既定的社会角色和社会行为，承受偏见和刻板带来的损害，为此，在新时期通过“对话”、“树立社会性别意识”和加强相应制度建设来推进两性和谐发展局露很必要。     

Professionalism in Indian public relations and corporate communications: An empirical analysis

Public relations is evolving in India and the profession is gaining acceptance and recognition. This study is an attempt to measure the extent of professionalism in India and how much consensus, if any, exists regarding professional standards among practitioners in agencies and those in corporations. It also identifies the influence of demographic factors on the standards in the profession.     

Religiosity and Fertility Intentions: Can the Gender Regime Explain Cross-Country Differences?

Research on the relationship between religiosity and fertility intentions revealed substantial cross-national differences. In some countries, a strong and positive effect of religiosity on fertility intentions was found, while in others, the effect was weaker or not significant, and the reasons underlying these cross-national differences are still unclear. The aim of this article is to explain these macro-level differences from the perspective of the prevailing gender regime. We argue that in countries with more traditional regimes, a stronger effect of religiosity on fertility intentions could be expected than in countries with a more egalitarian view. We make use of the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey and incorporate data from a total of 12 European countries in our analysis. We examine the influence of gender regime according to various macro-level indicators on gender attitudes and gender equality using meta-regression analyses. We also conduct robustness checks using other indicators such as the Gender Development Index. Our results reveal that the gender regime is only able to explain these differences in certain situations, specifically those relating to the long-term fertility intentions of men.     

The resilience of the entrepreneur. Influence on the success of the business. A longitudinal analysis

The literature regarding entrepreneurship suggests that the resilience of entrepreneur may help to explain entrepreneurial success. In this article, we test whether a connection exists between resilience dimensions and the success of established entrepreneurs in the Spanish tourism sector, and whether any gender-specific differences exist. Resilience of subjects was measured 5 years before the follow-up data was collected. The results show that the three dimensions of resilience (hardiness, resourcefulness and optimism) help to predict entrepreneurial success. The key factor in predicting the success of the entrepreneur is resourcefulness. This could be said about both men and women. However, the ability to predict entrepreneurial success of those who have hardiness and optimism is different for men and women. The influence of optimism on the success of their businesses is greater for women than for men.