Impostor Phenomenon Among Software Engineers: Investigating Gender Differences and Well-Being
Paloma Guenes, Rafael Tomaz, Bianca Trinkenreich
et al.
Research shows that more than half of software professionals experience the Impostor Phenomenon (IP), with a notably higher prevalence among women compared to men. IP can lead to mental health consequences, such as depression and burnout, which can significantly impact personal well-being and software professionals' productivity. This study investigates how IP manifests among software professionals across intersections of gender with race/ethnicity, marital status, number of children, age, and professional experience. Additionally, it examines the well-being of software professionals experiencing IP, providing insights into the interplay between these factors. We analyzed data collected through a theory-driven survey (n = 624) that used validated psychometric instruments to measure IP and well-being in software engineering professionals. We explored the prevalence of IP in the intersections of interest. Additionally, we applied bootstrapping to characterize well-being within our field and statistically tested whether professionals of different genders suffering from IP have lower well-being. The results show that IP occurs more frequently in women and that the prevalence is particularly high among black women as well as among single and childless women. Furthermore, regardless of gender, software engineering professionals suffering from IP have significantly lower well-being. Our findings indicate that effective IP mitigation strategies are needed to improve the well-being of software professionals. Mitigating IP would have particularly positive effects on the well-being of women, who are more frequently affected by IP.
Campaigning through the lens of Google: A large-scale algorithm audit of Google searches in the run-up to the Swiss Federal Elections 2023
Tobias Rohrbach, Mykola Makhortykh, Maryna Sydorova
Search engines like Google have become major sources of information for voters during election campaigns. To assess potential biases across candidates' gender and partisan identities in the algorithmic curation of candidate information, we conducted a large-scale algorithm audit analyzing Google's selection and ranking of information about candidates for the 2023 Swiss Federal Elections, three and one week before the election day. Results indicate that text searches prioritize media sources in search output but less so for women politicians. Image searches revealed a tendency to reinforce stereotypes about women candidates, marked by a disproportionate focus on stereotypically pleasant emotions for women, particularly among right-leaning candidates. Crucially, we find that patterns of candidates' representation in Google text and image searches are predictive of their electoral performance.
Social Norms, Economic Complexity, and Gender Inequality in Higher Education in Iran
Zahra Afshari, Behnaz Yousef Nfjad Maleki
This study explores the influence of gender-based social norms on gender inequality in higher education within the context of economic complexity across a panel of 23 countries, with particular focus on Iran, over the period from 2014 to 2021. Economic complexity, representing the sophistication and diversity of an economy's productive capabilities, is posited as a significant determinant impacting gender inequality in educational outcomes. In addition to economic complexity, control variables such as government educational expenditure per student, unemployment rate, good governance, and business openness are included to provide a comprehensive view. Empirical findings indicate that higher foreign direct investment and an improved governance index contribute to a reduction in gender inequality in education, whereas higher unemployment levels are associated with an increase in inequality. In contrast, trade liberalization and government educational expenditure per student do not significantly impact gender inequality in higher education. This paper offers insights into the dynamics of social norms and economic structures in shaping educational equity, with policy implications for countries aiming to reduce gender disparities in higher education through economic and governance reforms.
Social Sciences, Women. Feminism
A Hard-Science Approach to Kondratieff's Economic Cycle
Theodore Modis
In an effort to evidence the Kondratieff cycle more scientifically than the way economists do, physical variables are studied rather than monetary indicators. Previously published graphs are reproduced and updated here with recent data. A cyclical rather regular variation of energy consumption reveals a 56-year cycle. A dozen human endeavors/phenomena, such as bank failures, homicides, hurricanes, feminism, and sunspot activity are shown to resonate with this cycle. Possible explanations for this phenomenon may have to do with a climatic variation or with the length of time any individual actively influences the environment. There is some evidence that the cycle may be getting shorter in amplitude and duration in recent years. All quantitative confidence levels involved in these observations are poor by scientific standards and permit critics to question the very existence of this phenomenon.
Science for whom? The influence of the regional academic circuit on gender inequalities in Latin America
Carolina Pradier, Diego Kozlowski, Natsumi S. Shokida
et al.
The Latin-American scientific community has achieved significant progress towards gender parity, with nearly equal representation of women and men scientists. Nevertheless, women continue to be underrepresented in scholarly communication. Throughout the 20th century, Latin America established its academic circuit, focusing on research topics of regional significance. Through an analysis of scientific publications, this article explores the relationship between gender inequalities in science and the integration of Latin-American researchers into the regional and global academic circuits between 1993 and 2022. We find that women are more likely to engage in the regional circuit, while men are more active within the global circuit. This trend is attributed to a thematic alignment between women's research interests and issues specific to Latin America. Furthermore, our results reveal that the mechanisms contributing to gender differences in symbolic capital accumulation vary between circuits. Women's work achieves equal or greater recognition compared to men's within the regional circuit, but generally garners less attention in the global circuit. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at strengthening the regional academic circuit would encourage scientists to address locally relevant topics while simultaneously fostering gender equality in science.
Gender Representation in TV and Radio: Automatic Information Extraction methods versus Manual Analyses
David Doukhan, Lena Dodson, Manon Conan
et al.
This study investigates the relationship between automatic information extraction descriptors and manual analyses to describe gender representation disparities in TV and Radio. Automatic descriptors, including speech time, facial categorization and speech transcriptions are compared with channel reports on a vast 32,000-hour corpus of French broadcasts from 2023. Findings reveal systemic gender imbalances, with women underrepresented compared to men across all descriptors. Notably, manual channel reports show higher women's presence than automatic estimates and references to women are lower than their speech time. Descriptors share common dynamics during high and low audiences, war coverage, or private versus public channels. While women are more visible than audible in French TV, this trend is inverted in news with unseen journalists depicting male protagonists. A statistical test shows 3 main effects influencing references to women: program category, channel and speaker gender.
Meus encontros com Mariza Corrêa
Amanda Gonçalves Serafim
Resumo O acervo documental da antropóloga Mariza Corrêa (1945-2016) foi doado em 2019 ao Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth, mesma instituição que abriga os papeis resultantes de seu trabalho à frente do Projeto História da Antropologia no Brasil, desenvolvido a partir da década de 1980. Este artigo tem como objetivos apresentar três conferências inéditas de Corrêa, assim como seu acervo que abriga essa documentação, de forma a trazer a público alguns trabalhos importantes da autora, bem como incentivar novas pesquisas e reflexões com esse material, relevante para a área de história da antropologia. É um texto baseado também em minha relação com a documentação e com a pesquisa que venho desenvolvendo, que tem como foco a trajetória dessa antropóloga e seus papeis.
Determining the Correlation between Alexithymia, Intuitive Eating and Physical Activity Self-Worth in Woman: A Cross-Sectional Study
Ela Varol, Süheyla Yaralı
Objective: This study revealed the relationship of alexithymia with physical activity, self-worth, and intuitive eating in women. Method: The study was completed with 573 women referred to a family health center in eastern Turkey between June 2021 and June 2022 and agreed to participate. SPSS 25 was used to analyze the data. Results: The total mean score of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale of the women in the study was 76.53±11.68, while their mean physical activity self-worth inventory was 82.74±9.63, and they mean the intuitive eating scale total score was 45.37±.8.22. A negative and significant correlation was found between the alexithymia levels of the women included in the study and intuitive eating. In contrast, a positive correlation was found between their alexithymia levels and physical activity self-worth. As a result of multiple linear regression analysis, it was found that the Intuitive Eating Scale and the Women’s Physical Activity Self-Worth Inventory had a moderately significant relationship with alexithymia (R=0.64, R2=0.41, p
Gender Segregation: Analysis across Sectoral-Dominance in the UK Labour Market
Riccardo Leoncini, Mariele Macaluso, Annalivia Polselli
This paper aims to evaluate how changing patterns of sectoral gender segregation play a role in accounting for women's employment contracts and wages in the UK between 2005 and 2020. We then study wage differentials in gender-specific dominated sectors. We found that the propensity of women to be distributed differently across sectors is a major factor contributing to explaining the differences in wages and contract opportunities. Hence, the disproportion of women in female-dominated sectors implies contractual features and lower wages typical of that sector, on average, for all workers. This difference is primarily explained by "persistent discriminatory constraints", while human capital-related characteristics play a minor role. However, wage differentials would shrink if workers had the same potential and residual wages as men in male-dominated sectors. Moreover, this does not happen at the top of the wage distribution, where wage differentials among women working in female-dominated sectors are always more pronounced than those of men.
Anatomical basis of sex differences in the electrocardiogram identified by three-dimensional torso-heart imaging reconstruction pipeline
Hannah J. Smith, Blanca Rodriguez, Yuling Sang
et al.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) is used for diagnosis and risk stratification in myocardial infarction (MI). Women have a higher incidence of missed MI diagnosis and complications following infarction, and to address this we aim to provide quantitative information on sex-differences in ECG and torso-ventricular anatomical features and their interdependence. A novel computational automated pipeline is presented enabling the three-dimensional reconstruction of torso-ventricular anatomies for 425 post-MI subjects and 1051 healthy controls from UK Biobank clinical images. Regression models were created relating torso-ventricular and ECG parameters. We found that female hearts were positioned more posteriorly and superiorly than male, and in MI hearts were oriented more horizontally, especially for women. Post-MI women exhibited less QRS prolongation, requiring 27% more prolongation than men to exceed 120ms. Only half of the sex difference in QRS duration was associated with smaller female cavities. Lower STj amplitude in women was striking, associated with smaller ventricles, but also more superior and posterior cardiac position. Post-MI, T wave amplitude and R axis deviations were more strongly associated with posterior and horizontal cardiac positioning in women than in men. Our study highlights the need to quantify sex differences in anatomical features, their implications in ECG interpretation, and the application of clinical ECG thresholds in post-MI.
Gender Gaps in Online Social Connectivity, Promotion and Relocation Reports on LinkedIn
Ghazal Kalhor, Hannah Gardner, Ingmar Weber
et al.
Online professional social networking platforms provide opportunities to expand networks strategically for job opportunities and career advancement. A large body of research shows that women's offline networks are less advantageous than men's. How online platforms such as LinkedIn may reflect or reproduce gendered networking behaviours, or how online social connectivity may affect outcomes differentially by gender is not well understood. This paper analyses aggregate, anonymised data from almost 10 million LinkedIn users in the UK and US information technology (IT) sector collected from the site's advertising platform to explore how being connected to Big Tech companies ('social connectivity') varies by gender, and how gender, age, seniority and social connectivity shape the propensity to report job promotions or relocations. Consistent with previous studies, we find there are fewer women compared to men on LinkedIn in IT. Furthermore, female users are less likely to be connected to Big Tech companies than men. However, when we further analyse recent promotion or relocation reports, we find women are more likely than men to have reported a recent promotion at work, suggesting high-achieving women may be self-selecting onto LinkedIn. Even among this positively selected group, though, we find men are more likely to report a recent relocation. Social connectivity emerges as a significant predictor of promotion and relocation reports, with an interaction effect between gender and social connectivity indicating the payoffs to social connectivity for promotion and relocation reports are larger for women. This suggests that online networking has the potential for larger impacts for women, who experience greater disadvantage in traditional networking contexts, and calls for further research to understand differential impacts of online networking for socially disadvantaged groups.
Workplace Breastfeeding Legislation and Female Labor Force Participation in the United States
Julia Hatamyar
This paper studies the effects of legislation mandating the provision of workplace breastfeeding amenities on the labor force participation of women in the United States. Using both the American Community Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in a staggered difference-in-differences framework, I find evidence that workplace breastfeeding legislation significantly increases the likelihood of female labor force participation (FLFP) across both datasets and multiple specifications, by at least 1.5 percentage points. The timing and magnitude of the post-law increases in FLFP differ across the two datasets. I bolster the analyses using the CDC's Infant Feeding Practices Survey and the Childhood and Adoption Supplement to the PSID, which further suggest an influence of the laws on breastfeeding women. Heterogeneity analysis indicates the presence of substantial treatment effect heterogeneity across subgroups, but the findings are specific to the separate datasets. Across both datasets, the legislation appears to be more effective in states where average pre-law FLFP was comparatively low. I also find evidence of a negative spillover effect, whereby women without children and women with older children may have reduced their LFP in response to the legislation.
Wikigender: A Machine Learning Model to Detect Gender Bias in Wikipedia
Natalie Bolón Brun, Sofia Kypraiou, Natalia Gullón Altés
et al.
The way Wikipedia's contributors think can influence how they describe individuals resulting in a bias based on gender. We use a machine learning model to prove that there is a difference in how women and men are portrayed on Wikipedia. Additionally, we use the results of the model to obtain which words create bias in the overview of the biographies of the English Wikipedia. Using only adjectives as input to the model, we show that the adjectives used to portray women have a higher subjectivity than the ones used to describe men. Extracting topics from the overview using nouns and adjectives as input to the model, we obtain that women are related to family while men are related to business and sports.
Resistencias ambientales y feminismos territoriales frente al extractivismo agroindustrial en Argentina, ¿qué nos ha dejado la pandemia?
Mariela Pena
In Latin America, the covid-19 pandemic has deepened inequalities and perceptions of the socio-ecological crisis produced by the extractivist model that has dominated the region’s economies for the last few decades. In Argentina, resistance to this model is led by indigenous peasant farmers organised in the face of land grabbing processes. We address the role of feminisms within these territorial proposals during the pandemic, analyzing the case of women in the National Indigenous Peasant Movement (MNCI). Using an ethnographic approach with grassroots activists and qualitative analysis of public statements, we reflect on their positioning as spokespersons for critical alternatives to neoliberalism, through strategic alliances with broad sectors of the Global South.
Social Sciences, Social sciences (General)
Acompañar abortos en Paraná. Reflexiones no metropolitanas sobre el activismo feminista en Argentina
Julia Burton
Este artículo analiza el activismo feminista en la ciudad de Paraná a partir del estudio de Dora te Escucha, una de las cincuenta y cuatro colectivas feministas que conforman Socorristas en Red (feministas que abortamos). En estas páginas se examinan las acciones colectivas de este grupo y se analizan algunas de las características de la ciudad de Paraná en relación con la militancia por la legalización del aborto. El trabajo pretende constituir un aporte al conocimiento existente sobre el feminismo en Argentina desde una perspectiva situada y no metropolitana
Brazilian Obstetric Observatory
Agatha Rodrigues, Lucas Lacerda, Rossana Pulcineli Vieira Francisco
Covid-19 is responsible for high mortality in all countries, with the maternal population it is no different. Countries with a high rate of maternal mortality have deficiencies in the health care of pregnant women and women who have recently given birth, which will certainly be enhanced in a situation of overload in the health system, as occurred in this pandemic. Understanding the impact of the pandemic on maternal health is essential to discuss public policies and assist in solutions to future crises. With that in mind, we present the Brazilian Obstetric Observatory COVID-19 (OOBr COVID-19). OOBr COVID-19 is a dynamic panel with analyzes of the cases of pregnant and postpartum women with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARI) during the pandemic due to the new coronavirus. In this article, we present data loading, case selections, and processing of the variables for the analyzes available in OOBr COVID-19.
Entitled to Property: How Breaking the Gender Barrier Improves Child Health in India
Md Shahadath Hossain, Plamen Nikolov
Non-unitary household models suggest that enhancing women's bargaining power can influence child health, a crucial determinant of human capital and economic standing throughout adulthood. We examine the effects of a policy shift, the Hindu Succession Act Amendment (HSAA), which granted inheritance rights to unmarried women in India, on child health. Our findings indicate that the HSAA improved children's height and weight. Furthermore, we uncover evidence supporting a mechanism whereby the policy bolstered women's intra-household bargaining power, resulting in downstream benefits through enhanced parental care for children and improved child health. These results emphasize that children fare better when mothers control a larger share of family resources. Policies empowering women can yield additional positive externalities for children's human capital.
Trend and Determinants of Mortality Among Women of Reproductive Age: A Twelve-Year Open Cohort Study in Eastern Ethiopia
Merga Dheresa, Merga Dheresa, Abera Kenay Tura
et al.
Background: With only less than a decade left till 2030, it is essential to research the burden and trends of women of reproductive age (WRA) mortality in order to design appropriate interventions toward achieving goal three of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), good health and well-being. For several low-income countries, such data are often lacking or sometimes extrapolated from non-representative facility-based studies. In this paper, we presented trends, causes, and determinants of mortality among reproductive-age women under follow-up for 12 years through the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) located in eastern Ethiopia.Methods: We used 12 years of (2008 to 2019) open cohort data of women aged 15–49 living in Kersa HDSS in Eastern Ethiopia. In the HDSS, data on socio-demographic and basic household conditions are recorded for every household member at enrollment, and data on vital events such as births, deaths, and migration were collected and updated biannually as the event happened. Mortality was determined by automated verbal autopsy (InterVA) algorism. We assessed trends in women's reproductive age mortality and the associated determinants using crude and adjusted Cox regression models.Results: In the 12-years cohort, we followed 74,790 women of reproductive age for 339,909.26 person-years-at-risk of observation (PYO), of whom 919 died. Overall, the standardized mortality rate was 270 per 100,000 PYO. There was a notable increase in mortality in the first 3 years (2009 to 2011) which then declined significantly (p = 0.0001) until 2019. Most of the deaths were caused by HIV/AIDS (27.88%) and pulmonary tuberculosis (10.62%). In the adjusted Cox regression analysis, the hazard of death was higher among rural residents (AHR, 2.03: 95% CI: 1.60–2.58), unemployed women (AHR, 1.50: 95% CI: 1.19–1.89), and women with no formal education (AHR, 1.24: 95% CI: 1.01–1.52).Conclusion: The study showed a high number of women of reproductive age are still dying mainly due to causes for which preventable strategies are known and have been successfully implemented. The study identified that the main causes of death were related to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and there was a higher hazard of mortality among rural residents, unemployed women, and those with no formal education, who need effective implementation in achieving the SDG three.
Gynecology and obstetrics, Women. Feminism
Convening during COVID-19: Lessons learnt from organizing virtual workshops in 2020
Mandana Samiei, Caroline Weis, Larissa Schiavo
et al.
This report is an account of the authors' experiences as organizers of WiML's "Un-Workshop" event at ICML 2020. Un-workshops focus on participant-driven structured discussions on a pre-selected topic. For clarity, this event was different from the "WiML Workshop", which is usually co-located with NeurIPS. In this manuscript, organizers, share their experiences with the hope that it will help future organizers to host a successful virtual event under similar conditions. Women in Machine Learning (WiML)'s mission is creating connections within a small community of women working in machine learning, in order to encourage mentorship, networking, and interchange of ideas and increase the impact of women in the community.
Behavioral gender differences are reinforced during the COVID-19 crisis
Tobias Reisch, Georg Heiler, Jan Hurt
et al.
Behavioral gender differences are known to exist for a wide range of human activities including the way people communicate, move, provision themselves, or organize leisure activities. Using mobile phone data from 1.2 million devices in Austria (15% of the population) across the first phase of the COVID-19 crisis, we quantify gender-specific patterns of communication intensity, mobility, and circadian rhythms. We show the resilience of behavioral patterns with respect to the shock imposed by a strict nation-wide lock-down that Austria experienced in the beginning of the crisis with severe implications on public and private life. We find drastic differences in gender-specific responses during the different phases of the pandemic. After the lock-down gender differences in mobility and communication patterns increased massively, while sleeping patterns and circadian rhythms tend to synchronize. In particular, women had fewer but longer phone calls than men during the lock-down. Mobility declined massively for both genders, however, women tend to restrict their movement stronger than men. Women showed a stronger tendency to avoid shopping centers and more men frequented recreational areas. After the lock-down, males returned back to normal quicker than women; young age-cohorts return much quicker. Differences are driven by the young and adolescent population. An age stratification highlights the role of retirement on behavioral differences. We find that the length of a day of men and women is reduced by one hour. We discuss the findings in the light of gender-specific coping strategies in response to stress and crisis.