Egalitarian Perspective Research Articles

Can the digital economy close the gender wage gap? Evidence from China

Using data from the Chinese Household Income Project and Chinese Family Panel Studies, this paper systematically examines the impact of the digital economy on the gender wage gap. According to empirical evidence, the development of the digital economy can reduce the gender wage gap, and this result still holds after a series of robustness tests. Consistent with our theoretical analysis, the results of mechanism analysis confirm that this relationship holds because the development of the digital economy can promote women’s formal employment, ease family care burdens of women, and promote the formation of egalitarian gender perspectives. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that this effect weakens with increasing wage rates and differs among people with different skills, industries, sectors, and regions. Further analysis suggests that among the entrepreneurial population, the digital economy has a sizable effect on reducing the gender wage gap.

Life cycle assessment of lipid production from Pavlova gyrans: Influence of the culture medium composition

Microalgae have been increasingly recognized as an alternative source of lipids, especially polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) such as omega 3 and 6, being essential to carefully assess their life cycle environmental impacts. Hence, this work aims to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA) of lipid production from the microalga Pavlova gyrans grown in different culture media and nutrient concentrations, on a “cradle-to-gate” approach. For the life cycle inventory, primary data obtained from laboratory experiments was used for the foreground processes, complemented with secondary data from LCA databases and literature for the background processes. The functional unit chosen is 1 g of lipids extracted. For the environmental impact assessment, the ReCiPe 2016 method was used, evaluating 18 midpoint indicators from an egalitarian perspective. An uncertainty estimate was performed using experimental results and the ANOVA statistical test. Results show that the organic fertilizer medium has an overall environmental impact around 1.28 to 2 times lower than the aquaculture effluent medium. Energy is the process hotspot, contributing more than 95%, on average, to the overall potential environmental impact. Alternative renewable energy scenarios were therefore evaluated. Results show that, compared to the electricity mix, renewable energies led to significant reductions in 13 environmental impact categories, such as global warming potential, which decreased by around 70 and 90% respectively for solar and wind energy, but to significant increases in 5 impact categories, such as terrestrial ecotoxicity, which increased by around 231 and 184%, and the mineral resources scarcity, which increased by around 114 and 302% respectively for solar and wind energy. The results of this study can provide valuable information to guide research and development efforts towards more sustainable processes for obtaining lipids from microalgae.

‘The care crisis within’: gender division of labour and care work in middle-class families in Kerala during the pandemic

ABSTRACT This article highlights the facets of gender disparities in care work and emotional labour within dual earning households that have aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online qualitative survey and in-depth interviews carried out among 50 heterosexual, middle-class, and upper-middle-class working parents in Kerala, India, in the post-pandemic period, indicate that working mothers faced time poverty and additional work burden during the lockdown period, while they tussled between work from home and (care) works at home, as external support mechanisms were suspended during the pandemic. The findings illustrate that the disparities in division of labour are immense and are associated with more feminized labour such as cooking and childcare responsibilities, and that the spouses normalize such disparities. I further argue that the glorification and magnification of voluntary involvement of men in care work further problematize the dichotomy. I construe that the egalitarian gender perspectives expressed by the respondents are premised on the concept of gender equality as something to be achieved outside the family, and not within. Here, I illustrate how the working wives and mothers are compelled to over-compensate for ideas of femininity and motherliness associated with the figure of the housewife, through this imposed volunteering of care work.

‘The many faces of laziness’

ABSTRACT What do we owe to the lazy? On the assumption that the lazy are a paradigmatic case of people who are worse off, when they are through a fault, or choice, of their own, one might suspect that the answer is: not very much. This article shows that this suspicion is simple-minded. Four notions of laziness are distinguished. It is then shown that these notions differ – even from a luck egalitarian perspective – in ways bearing on the question of what is owed to the lazy. It is claimed that in some – but not all – cases, being lazy grounds a claim to compensation rather than forming a ground for withholding it.

Environmental performance of an autonomous laser weeding robot—a case study

PurposeChallenges in sustainable development envisioned in the European Union for the agricultural sector require innovation to raise the efficiency of production and safety of farming processes for farmers and ensure food safety for consumers. One of the key productivity factors in plant production is effective weeding. The WeLASER project aimed to develop a high-power autonomous vehicle with lasers to control weeds. To be sustainable, the invention should have a high environmental performance in the whole life cycle perspective, including its production, use in agriculture, and end-of-life phase. In the publication, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the WeLASER weeding robot is presented. The aim was to identify weak and strong aspects of the invention in environmental terms and provide suggestions for its improvement.MethodsThe machinery was characterized based on technical data provided by the developers, relevant literature, Ecoinvent 3.8 database, and own calculations. The quantitative assessment of environmental impacts was performed using the Simapro tool. For interpretation Recipe 2016 method (egalitarian perspective) was applied.ResultsThe results show that the energy issue related to autonomous laser-based weeding machine operations is the most challenging. It is related to impacts on climate change indicators and fossil fuel depletion. Production phase is characterized with impacts on human toxicity and is related to extensive application of electronic and electric components in the robot.ConclusionIn comparison with other weeding techniques, the high-power autonomous vehicle with lasers to control weeds shows potential for environmentally efficient use of the machinery in practice. Achieving high performance in the life cycle perspective requires improvements in the design, operational features, and smart application in agricultural practice enhanced through expertise, guidance, and advice.

The Effect of Prejudice and Discrimination Education Given to University Students on Gender Perception and Attitude

University education may influence attitudes toward gender roles. The awareness of students in the field of health services about the gender inequalities they will encounter both during the education process and in the future while providing health services will play a role in providing health services in a more effective and equitable way. In order for university students to approach men and women with an egalitarian perspective at an early age, their gender stereotypes must first decrease and their perspectives on social relations must change positively. Therefore, university education can play an important role in influencing gender perception and attitudes towards gender roles. There is no special course on prejudice and discrimination in the training programs of Vocational Schools of Health Services that train health technicians in Turkey. Based on this, this study aimed to examine the effect of the training program given to raise awareness of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination on the gender perception and attitude of students who will provide health care in the future. For this purpose, answers were sought to the following questions: Is there a difference in students' gender perceptions of prejudice and discrimination before and after training? Are there any differences in students' gender role attitudes regarding prejudice and discrimination before and after education? Is there a relationship between gender perception and attitudes towards gender roles? As a method, a single-group the pretest-posttest semi-experimental method was used. The research was conducted with students taking the Prejudice and Discrimination course at the Vocational School of Health Services. 95 second-grade students participated in the research. The reason why sophomore students from the Disabled Care and Rehabilitation program, the Pharmacy Services program, and the Occupational Therapy Program were selected in the study is that the "Prejudice and Discrimination" course is given in the second-grade student spring semester. Descriptive Information Form, Gender Roles Attitude Scale (GRAS), and Gender Perception Scale (GPS) were used to collect data. Before the course program started, GRAS and GPS were administered to the participants as a pretest. Afterwards, a fourteen-week course period on "Prejudice and Discrimination" was carried out. At the end of the course, GRAS and GPS were administered to the participants as posttests. According to the students' descriptive characteristics, it was found that the mean age of the participants in the study was 21.6±3.3, and that 73.7% of them were female. According to the study, most students' mothers (56.9%) and fathers (38.9%) had completed elementary school. The families of 73.7% of the participants are nuclear families. The students' average number of siblings was found to be 2.8±2.1, and the majority (51.6%) of them had both brothers and sisters. The investigation discovered that 43.2% of the students lived primarily in the city center. Most students who participated in the study said that the Black Sea region was where they spent most of their lives (46.3%). The research revealed that prejudice and discrimination training provided via online distance education methods did not affect the gender perception and gender role attitudes of second-year Vocational School of Health Services students (respectively; p = 0.890, p = 0.976). However, a positive relationship was found between gender perception and attitudes towards gender roles (pretest r = 0,825, p < 0,01; posttest r = 0,893, p< 0,01). While the total scale score of women was higher than men according to GPS and GRAS scores according to sex before the training (GPS, p = 0.002; GRAS, p

‘한 학기 한 권 읽기’에 관한 교사 이론과 실천 탐색

This study aims to explore how in-service teachers’ implicit theories inform their practice in relation to ‘One Semester One Book’. To this end, a selective review of the literature of 'One Semester One Book’ proponents was conducted to explore the different perspectives related to teachers’ implicit theories. The results revealed that teachers’ implicit theories in relation to ‘One Semester One Book’ are based on the perspectives of naturalistic teaching theory, whole language approach, authentic theory, and egalitarian perspective. How different perspectives related to the implicit theories are connected to reading instructional practices was explored through a survey study of secondary language arts teachers. Their understanding, attitudes, and practices of ‘One Semester One Book’ were positive. They were significantly related to “making reading habits” and “reading a variety of texts” among reading instructional content. However, teachers’ understanding, attitudes, and practices of ‘One Semester One Book’ were not statistically significant with “using appropriate reading strategies” or “fostering positive reading attitudes,” which are important in the national curriculum. This suggests that teachers’ implicit theories about ‘One Semester One Book’ are considerably influencing their reading instructional practices.

An Egalitarian Perspective on Information Sharing: The Example of Health Care Priorities

In health care, the provision of pertinent information to patients is not just a moral imperative but also a legal obligation, often articulated through the lens of obtaining informed consent. Codes of medical ethics and many national laws mandate the disclosure of basic information about diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment alternatives. However, within publicly funded health care systems, other kinds of information might also be important to patients, such as insights into the health care priorities that underlie treatment offers made. While conventional perspectives do not take this as an obligatory part of the information to be shared with patients, perhaps through viewing it as clinically “non-actionable,” we advocate for a paradigm shift. Our proposition diverges from the traditional emphasis on actionability. We contend that honoring patients as equal moral agents necessitates, among other principles, a commitment to honesty. Withholding specific categories of information pertinent to patients’ comprehension of their situation is inherently incompatible with this principle. In this article, we advocate for a recalibration of the burden of proof. Rather than requiring special justifications for adding to the standard set of information items, we suggest that physicians should be able to justify excluding relevant facts about the patient’s situation and the underlying considerations shaping health care professionals’ choices. This perspective prioritizes transparency and empowers patients with a comprehensive understanding, aligning with the ethos of respect for the patient as person.

Verification of the results of environmental life cycle assessment of bulky waste management technologies using sensitivity analysis

Abstract The calculation aimed to verify the life cycle assessment (LCA) results of the bulky waste management technology by using sensitivity analysis. Different sensitivity analyses for LCA were carried out to point out which of the tested methods gave the most reliable LCA results. The main factor that helped to find the best-fitted method was CO2 emissions. The LCA analyses were performed by IOŚ-PIB using SimaPro software based on the technology data obtained during the Urbanrec project. The sensitivity analysis was conducted twofold: the LCA analysis was carried out for different time horizons in the frame of the ReCiPe method egalitarian (E), individual (I), and hierarchic (H). In the second step, the LCA results for the ReCiPe method were compared with the LCA results for methods: CML-IA, Impact 2002+, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GGP). The results of the LCA for all endpoints are sensitive to changes in the time horizon, which is reflected in the change in impact assessment methods used in calculations. The biggest differences are visible between the egalitarian and individual perspectives. In the second case of the sensitivity analysis, differences in results between the individual analytical methods used for LCAs can be observed. The obtained results show a high sensitivity of LCA results from the adopted time horizon, as well as moderate sensitivity of the carbon footprint depending on the method of analysis used.

Effect of Gender Attitudes of Young Adults on Levels of Perceived Social Support in Health Behaviors.

The current cross-sectional descriptive study was performed to determine the effect of young adults' attitudes regarding social gender roles on perceived social support level in health behaviors. Participants comprised 209 young adults aged 18 to 21 years. Data collection tools included a sociodemographic characteristics form, the Gender Roles Attitude Scale, and Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale for Healthy Behaviors (CASSS-HB). Data were analyzed using percentile, correlation, and regression analysis. A significant positive correlation was found between total CASSS-HB score and the egalitarian gender role subdimension of the Gender Roles Attitude Scale. It was determined that participants with an egalitarian perspective toward gender roles had increased levels of social support in health behaviors. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 62(4), 17-23.].

Gender Stratification and Changing in Gender Expectations: A comparative analysis between coeducational schools and single-sex schools in Erbil

This study explores the impact of coeducational schools on reducing gender inequality by comparing students' perspectives in coeducational and single-sex schools with similar academic levels. Seventh-grade (aged 12,13) and twelfth-grade (aged 17,18) students from three basic and three preparatory schools participate. Qualitative data is gathered through eight focused group interviews with 80 students and analyzed using coding. Quantitative data is collected through questionnaires, including students' perspectives on gender issues and controllable variables related to their home background. SPSS program is used for analysis, employing cross-tabulation and correlation. The study supports the "enlightenment approach" as both types of schools show changes in gender expectations, with twelfth-grade students exhibiting more egalitarian views. Gender inequality in teacher treatment was observed in all selected schools. Preparatory coeducational schools showed better treatment towards girls, while twelfth-grade girls faced inequality in a preparatory single-sex school for girls. Similarly, a significant gender inequality was found in teacher treatment towards boy students in the preparatory school for boys. This indicates that the school somewhat reproduces inequality. In analyzing the questionnaire, gender, age, and school type were compared as independent variables with dependent variables related to students' perspectives. Results showed that girls generally hold more egalitarian perspectives than males, older students are more egalitarian than younger students, and students in coeducational schools are more egalitarian than those in single-sex schools. This suggests that coeducation is a step towards gender equality. Furthermore, a comparison between seventh-grade and twelfth-grade students' perspectives in each selected school revealed changes in gender expectations between these two stages, emphasizing the impact of education on enlightening gender equality. However, when comparing students' perspectives with their home background, the impact of the school becomes less apparent. Despite the influence of school or education on gender expectations, home socialization remains the primary factor in increasing or reducing gender inequality.

Can Voluntary Health Insurance for Non-reimbursed Expensive New Treatments Be Just?

Public healthcare systems are increasingly refusing (temporarily) to reimburse newly approved medical treatments of insufficient or uncertain cost-effectiveness. As both patient demand for these treatments and their list prices increase, a market might arise for voluntary additional health insurance (VHI) that covers effective but (very) expensive medical treatments. In this paper, we evaluate such potential future practices of VHI in public healthcare systems from a justice perspective. We find that direct (telic) egalitarian objections to unequal access to expensive treatments based on different ability to afford VHI do not stand up to scrutiny. However, such unequal access might lead to loss of self-respect among individuals, or loss of fraternity within society, rendering it more difficult for citizens to interact on equal moral footing. This would be problematic from a relational egalitarian perspective. Moreover, the introduction of VHI might turn out to have negative consequences for the comprehensiveness and/or the quality of the public healthcare services that are offered to all patients equally through basic health insurance. These consequences must be weighed against potential health gains and the value of liberty. We conclude that governments should be careful when considering the introduction of VHI in public healthcare systems.

From the Deer to the Monkey: how the transmission of the Jātaka animal stories to medieval China enriched Chinese culture and complemented Confucianism

ABSTRACT In contrast with Chinese literary tradition and Confucianism, there was a multitude of animals and birds in the Jātaka stories, which had yet to be researched as a reference point of Confucianism. Because of Buddhism’s opposition to the use of animals as a sacrifice, its rejection of consuming animal meat, and because animals were considered as a state of the former existence of Śākyamuni Buddha, Buddhist literature gives ample room to animal images as full-fledged main characters and moral agents. A careful analysis of the use of herbivores such as deer, turtles, wild geese, and monkeys as a narrative device in the Jātaka stories demonstrates that personified animals served as a source of inspiration for humans. Turning animals into articulate moral agents render them no longer the object of human sympathy as in Confucianism nor metaphors in philosophical Daoism, but intellectually equal and ethically superior to humans. The Buddhist idea of cherishing all sentient beings was not merely based on compassion but also an egalitarian perspective that acknowledges animals’ subjectivity as autonomous emotional-moral agents. This unique dimension of Buddhism complemented the Confucian anthropocentric worldview and enriched Chinese literature and art.

Critiquing Islamic Feminism from a Social Psychological Perspective

Islamic feminism represents a feminist discourse that seeks to reinterpret the Qur'an from a contemporary egalitarian perspective, challenging the traditional and patriarchal interpretations of Islam. By doing so, Islamic feminists aim to reclaim an ethical vision of the Qur'an, especially concerning verses that have historically deprived women of equal rights within the family and society. Through their efforts, Islamic feminism introduces new discourses and debates on gender relations within an Islamic context, fostering a greater gender and religious consciousness and furthering the cause of gender equality. This paper takes a critical approach to Islamic feminism, employing a social psychological perspective on gender, using Abdulkarim Soroush's theory. According to Soroush, revelation is understood as the prophet's inspired expression resulting from his religious experience. It is not a direct word from God but rather Muhammad's interpretation of a divine experience. In this context, the paper examines the lived experience of the prophet as a man in a specific historical epoch where women's lived experiences were not adequately represented. It highlights how the revelation or the Qur'an is rooted in a male lived experience. The paper begins with an overview of Islamic feminists and Islamic reformists, both of whom strive to view the revelation as the prophet's word rather than attributing the non-scientific content of the Qur'an directly to God's word. Subsequently, it delves into a critique of Islamic feminism through the lens of Abdulkarim Soroush's theory on recognizing the revelation as the prophet's word. Additionally, the paper draws upon gender theories from the field of social psychology to provide a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter.

Analysis of the Historical Development and Critical Importance of US Election Campaign Finance Regulation

Election, one of the fundamental representations of democracy is changing due to the flood of money running into campaign finance; this essay trying to identify the historical development and impact of US campaign regulation on the virtues of democracy. The general trends across academia spilted between liberitarian and egalitarian perspectives in debating the fundamental tradeoff between freedom and equality by looking at the logic behind the changing regulation. This essay takes an inclusive approach reviewing the various fields that conduct campaign finance research while providing a historical overview of the US election campaign regulations and their critical impact on American political society.

On the Egalitarian–Utilitarian spectrum in stochastic capacitated resource allocation problems

In this paper, we study a generalized resource allocation problem where a limited resource is to be allocated to a set of agencies with stochastic receiving capacities while taking into account the decision-maker’s preference towards equity in allocation. Taking the empiric distributional nature of the capacities into account, we formulate the problem in a chance-constrained based Mixed-Integer Programming framework with user-specified reliability and tolerance levels as well as equity preference level. We show that the problem can be conveniently reduced to a linear equivalent with adjusted capacity constraints. Deriving the tightest lower and upper bounds corresponding to the utilitarian and egalitarian perspectives, respectively, we give the closed-form optimal solutions for such cases. Using real data, we test the behavior of our model with a view towards the inherent equity-efficiency as well as reliability-efficiency trade-offs. We further characterize the cost and value of information in a detailed analysis.

Does the digital economy generate a gender dividend for female employment? Evidence from China

Using data from the China General Social Survey, the China Family Panel Studies, and a unique dataset of enterprises' online recruitment, this research examines the effect of the digital economy on female employment. The empirical results suggest that the digital economy significantly promotes female employment. Consistent with our theoretical analysis, the estimates indicate that this relationship holds because the digital economy promotes the formation of egalitarian gender perspectives, promotes the use of digital technology, and increases labor demand emphasizing the necessity for female-preference occupations. The dividend of the digital economy is tilted toward vulnerable groups in the labor market, including the low-skilled, older, and rural workforce, and only exerts an employment promotion effect on women without parenting burden. Further examination reveals evidence that digitalization has not led to a holistic improvement in the quality of female employment. Digitalization lengthens the working hours of severely underemployed female workers, and improves women's occupational status and job satisfaction; however, it has a minimal impact on protecting employees' rights and interests or reducing overtime workers' work intensity. Nonself-employed, full-time, and part-time workers all benefit from the development of the digital economy, while self-employed workers do not. In addition, a weakening effect of digitalization on the gender employment gap is not evident, which relates to the digital economy generating a female dividend in terms of promoting gender equality and increasing labor demand but resulting in a digital gender divide in the use of digital technology.

The views on distributive justice and economic inequality revisited: the political philosophy and the economic perspectives on (in)equality

This review attempts to provide pointers to some of the parallel evolution of the concept of distributive justice put forward by philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, historians, and economists. In political philosophy, debates originating in the 17th century have primarily focused on the conditions for redistribution, the definition of justice, and how to make society more just. These debates have evolved from discussions between egalitarians and utilitarians to modern theories of capabilities and inequality of opportunity. Economic inequality from the economists perspective is often linked to the measurement of socioeconomic conditions at a specific point in time (although initial conditions or future income may also be considered), and often does not include considerations of fairness or institutional guarantees of liberty, equal opportunity, or fair distribution. This review emphasizes that distributive justice and inequality are separate concepts with separate discussions. Political philosophers debate distributive justice along multiple axes, including utilitarian and egalitarian perspectives, as well as theories of ex ante inequality of opportunity and capabilities. In contrast, economists focus on issues such as measurement, the existence of an efficiency/inequality trade-off, and the endogeneity of inequality.

The Representation of Gender Stereotypes in Spanish Mathematics Textbooks for Elementary Education

The latest report of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science, and Culture (OEI) points out that only 13% of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students in Spain are women. Numerous studies have claimed that gender stereotypes are the leading cause of women’s underrepresentation in STEM. Textbooks constitute a powerful instrument in the configuration of a socio-occupational culture that could be biased if they contain sexism. This investigation examines, through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the unequal representation of women and men in elementary mathematics textbooks currently used in Spain. The results indicate that even though textbooks present an equal frequency of female and male characters, there is an absence of women as real role models in STEM. Characters also reinforce traditional gender stereotypes in the embodiment of social roles. Problem-solving contexts show women using math in a limited variety of daily-life activities, while overall they are represented as insecure and unable to resolve certain mathematical issues. Our study points out that this gender gap in mathematics textbooks can affect girls’ self-esteem and discourage their interest in pursuing scientific-technological careers. Consequently, our study urges teachers to adopt an egalitarian perspective in selecting and using didactic materials.

A Social Psychological Critique on Islamic Feminism

Islamic feminism, as a discourse within feminism, aims to re-read the Qur’an from a modern egalitarian perspective, which is outside the traditional and patriarchal interpretation of Islam. Islamic feminists reclaim an ethical vision of the Qur’an by presenting a reinterpretation, especially regarding verses that deprive women from having equal rights in the family, as well as in society. However, while Islamic feminism presents a gender equal interpretation of the Qur’an and raises new discourses and debates on gender relations in an Islamic context, a critical insight of Islamic feminism can provide a new gender and religious consciousness that, in turn, develops further perspectives on gender equality in a religious context. This paper aims to provide a critique of Islamic feminism from a social psychological perspective of gender using the theory of Abdulkarim Soroush. His theory considers revelation as the prophet’s word resulting from his religious experience. Soroush defines revelation as an inspiration; in this way, revelation or Qur’an is not directly God’s word, but Muhammad’s word resulting from a divine experience. Accordingly, this paper deals with a social psychological perspective of the lived experience of the prophet as a man in a certain epoch of history, in which the lived experiences of women were not represented, and the revelation or the Qur’an is based on a male lived experience. It begins with an overview of Islamic feminists as well as the more general current of Islamic reformists and their efforts to view the revelation as the word of the prophet in order to avoid attributing the non-scientific content of the Qur’an to the direct word of God. This is followed by a critique of Islamic feminism based on Abdulkarim Soroush’s theory of the recognition of the revelation as the word of the prophet, as well as gender theories from the field of social psychology.