Female Household Members Research Articles

Factors associated with dog ownership and contact with dogs in a UK community

BackgroundDogs are popular pets in many countries. Identifying differences between those who own dogs or have contact with dogs, and those who do not, is useful to those interested in the human-animal bond, human health and for provision of veterinary services. This census-based, epidemiological study aimed to investigate factors associated with dog ownership and contact with dogs, in a semi-rural community of 1278 households in Cheshire, UK.ResultsTwenty-four percent of households were identified as dog-owning and 52% owned a pet of some type. Multivariable logistic regression suggested that households were more likely to own a dog if they had more occupants (five or more); if they had an adult female household member; or if they owned a horse. The age structure of the households was also associated with dog ownership, with households containing older children (between six and 19 years of age) and young adults (between 20 and 29 years of age), more likely to own dogs. We also found that dog owning households were more likely to be multi-dog households than single-dog if they also owned a cat or a bird, or if the household contained a person of 20–29 years old. Dog owners reported increased contact with dogs, other than their own, compared to those that did not own dogs and this contact appeared to be mainly through walking.ConclusionSome household types are more likely to own a dog than others. This study supports the suggestion that dogs are more common in families who have older children (6–19 years), as has been generally observed in other countries. Dog owners are also more likely to have contact with dogs other than their own, compared with those not owning a dog.

Globalisation, Gender, and Equity – Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Labour Markets in Rural Indonesia

This study assesses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on gendered labour markets in rural Indonesia. It focuses on the gender composition of the workforce, female and male workers' employment conditions and gender wage inequality. The research strategy of »between-methods triangulation« is chosen, denoting the combination of quantitative and qualitative types of data generation and analysis. Two underlying mechanisms have been identified. A »cost effect« associated with transnational corporations' (TNCs') greater orientation towards the world market is the preferential recruitment of, on average, lower paid female workers. In light of global competitive cost considerations, this appears as a rational strategy for TNCs. Conversely, foreign firms' advanced technological endowments relative to domestic companies require a well-educated workforce with technical skills. In light of these perspectives, gender gaps in education and, on average, women's weaker labour market attachment disadvantage female workers' employment in TNCs. Both effects are mediated by a »reproductive constraint«. This refers to the asymmetric distribution of reproductive obligations between female and male household members, whereby female input into the domestic economy is more demanding relative to that of males.

Gender and Ethnicity Dimensions in Relation to Access to and Control Over Household Resources in Nepal

The study examined gender roles in access to, and control over, household resources in three culturally distinct ethnic groups of rural Nepal. Gender analysis using Harvard Analytical Framework and face-to-face interviews with one male and one female member from each of the 123 households were conducted. The results indicated that men dominated in all aspects of household resources in all the ethnic groups (Brahmin/Chhetri, Gurung, and Tharu). The Gurung women fared relatively better compared to women in other two ethnic groups. This could be due to prolonged absence of male household members among Gurung households. The responses from female household members were mostly in conformity with those obtained from male members. Furthermore, findings from the gender analysis were consistent with household survey results conducted by 1998. The validation of findings using both methods suggests that the results are reliable and can be used for policy formulation for rural development. 
 
 Key words: Gender, household resources, ethnicity, farming 
 
 J. Inst. Agric. Anim. Sci. 26:135-141 (2005)

The Impact on Nutrition of the Intrahousehold Distribution of Power

The distribution of income within the household is found to matter for the allocation of resources towards nutrition. Rural Mexican households do not pool income, nor do they attain a Pareto-efficient allocation of resources. In contrast to what is commonly done in the literature, I do not assume that only the head of household and his wife share the decision-making. In particular, I present a new test of the unitary model in the context of extended families, which acknowledges that any household member may participate to the decision-making as long as he or she earns some income. I find that a change in the number of income earners is associated with a change in food calorie consumption controlling for the change in household size and household income. Both the number and identities of income earners matter in the extended family. In particular, when a female household member starts earning income, food consumption increases substantively. When it is a male household member who starts earning income, it decreases substantively.

Time use, work and overlapping activities: evidence from Australia

The overlapping of activities is an important dimension of time use that has previously received little attention in economic analysis. Most time-use studies have looked only at primary activities, ignoring the fact that individuals often perform two or more activities simultaneously. This seriously underestimates the time spent on several economic activities such as childcare and housework which are also performed as secondary activities. Using a two-adult household sub-sample from the 1992 National Australian Time Use Survey, this paper examines the incidence and determinants of overlapping activities among 3,966 adult male and female household members. It first shows that inclusion of overlapping activities in time-use measurements provides a better estimation of the economic contribution of individuals, especially in non-market production. Tobit models are then estimated to examine the effects of economic, social and demographic factors on the incidence of overlapped work activity. The findings, which are found to be robust, showed that gender, household life cycle and composition, education, cultural norms, employment status and level of income earnings influence the extent to which individuals, particularly women, perform secondary work activities. Conclusions are drawn in the final section of the paper. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Adoption of biomass improved cookstoves in a patriarchal society: an example from Sudan

The economic, social, ecological and environmental roles and benefits of forests are obvious and need no emphasis. Inefficient use of fuel wood is considered one of the important causes of deforestation. Use of more efficient improved cookstoves is proposed as one of the measures that can reduce demand for fuel wood and charcoal and help in lowering the annoying deforestation rate in many developing countries. During the 1980s and 1990s several programs aiming at testing and disseminating energy saving technologies were implemented in Sudan. One of these technologies was improved cookstoves, which was intended to increase the efficiency of using energy from biomass sources. This study is carried out to examine the adoption rate and the factors affecting adoption of improved cookstoves in Khartoum State. The study is based on primary data collected through personal interviews with husbands and wives in 300 randomly selected households. Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the device's adoption rate was very low. The improved cookstove's relative advantage, housewife's exposure to messages about improved cookstoves, educational level of the housewife and the average educational level of the female household's members had significant positive effect on the household's innovativeness regarding adoption of improved cookstove. Wife's age and the educational level of the husband had negative significant effects. In the Sudanese patriarchal society all the household domestic tasks, particularly food preparation and related activities, are considered women's responsibilities and all the decisions related to them are taken by women. Therefore, these results could be understood as a reflection of the division of labor, gender relations and decision-making process in the Sudanese household.

Prevalence of war-related sexual violence and other human rights abuses among internally displaced persons in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict has cost tens of thousands of lives and all parties to the conflict have committed abuses. To assess the prevalence and impact of war-related sexual violence and other human rights abuses among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sierra Leone. A cross-sectional, randomized survey, using structured interviews and questionnaires, of internally displaced Sierra Leone women who were living in 3 IDP camps and 1 town, which were conducted over a 4-week period in 2001. A total of 991 women provided information on 9166 household members. The mean (SE) age of the respondents was 34 (0.48) years (range, 14-80 years). The majority of the women sampled were poorly educated (mean [SE], 1.9 [0.11] years of formal education); 814 were Muslim (82%), and 622 were married (63%). Accounts of war-related sexual assault and other human rights abuses. Overall, 13% (1157) of household members reported incidents of war-related human rights abuses in the last 10 years, including abductions, beatings, killings, sexual assaults and other abuses. Ninety-four (9%) of 991 respondents and 396 (8%) of 5001 female household members reported war-related sexual assaults. The lifetime prevalence of non-war-related sexual assault committed by family members, friends, or civilians among these respondents was also 9%, which increased to 17% with the addition of war-related sexual assaults (excluding 1% of participants who reported both war-related and non-war-related sexual assault). Eighty-seven percent of women believed that there should be legal protection for women's human rights. More than 60% of respondents believed a man has a right to beat his wife if she disobeys, and that it is a wife's duty/obligation to have sex with her husband even if she does not want to. Sexual violence committed by combatants in Sierra Leone was widespread and was perpetrated in the context of a high level of human rights abuses against the civilian population.

A goal programming model for planning management of Miombo woodlands

This study used a Goal Programming approach to investigate the effects of changes in agricultural policies and labour supply due to deaths in farming households, on use of woodlands under two regimes; namely one where utilization of forest resources was restricted to within sustainable levels and under another where this restriction was relaxed, i.e. an open access situation. The study sites for this work were Mutangi in Chivi district and Mafungautsi in Gokwe district. The Mafungautsi community borders the Mafungautsi State Protected Forest and is relatively better-endowed with woodlands than Mutangi. The results from the study indicate that households in communal areas are highly differentiated with regards to ability to satisfying family sustenance goals; relatively poor households depend on woodlands for a significant part of their income needs but richer families are more efficient in harvesting woodlands; increase in agricultural product prices or increase in crop yields tend to increase harvesting of woodland products among the better off and reduce woodland harvests by the poorer households; increase in input costs tends to increase reliance on woodlands especially among the poorer households; and loss of a member of a household increases the degree of poverty especially among the relatively poor with the greatest impacts being felt with loss of female members of households. The Zimbabwe Science News Volume 36 (1+ 2) 2002, pp. 42

Nonfarm Employment and Poverty Alleviation of Rural Farm Households in Honduras

This paper analyzes the role of nonfarm income of rural farm households in Honduras. It uses the national income and expenditure survey from 1993 to 1994. Income from nonfarm wage and self-employment represents 16–25% of farm household income and is especially important for middle and higher income strata. Nonfarm wage labor is geographically concentrated in small rural towns and in the industrial free zones located in the Northern region, while self-employment is particularly developed in the Southern region. Access to nonfarm wage employment is confined to educated individuals that belong to large households, while female members of wealthier households are mainly involved in self-employment. Food security is strongly enhanced through the engagement in nonfarm activities. Moreover, nonfarm income enables farmers to purchase external inputs for improving yields and labor productivity. Suitable policies to enhance nonfarm employment include education, training, and technical assistance to reduce labor intensity in agricultural production, as well as public investment and credit services to improve access to nonfarm activities.

Supply Response in an Agrarian Economy with Non-Symmetric Gender Relations

There is a growing recognition that gender relations matter for supply response to devaluation and other structural adjustment policies in sub-Saharan Africa. But, most household models that introduce gender differentiation nevertheless preserve an essential symmetry between male and female household members, and do not capture elements of subordination or coercion in male–female relations. This paper seeks to contribute by developing a model based on Stackelberg-type equations, in which the husband occupies the position of “firstmover,” reflecting his power to set the parameters for women's choices. The model is contextualized with reference to Tanzania.

Family responses to HIV/AIDS in Mexico

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of household and community responses to HIV/AIDS in Mexico. Fieldwork took place in two contrasting settings: (a) Ciudad Netzahualcóyotl, a socially marginalized urban community and (b) the homosexual community of Mexico City, a sexually marginalized social network. 113 in-depth interviews were conducted with people with HIV/AIDS, their relatives and members of their social networks. This paper describes findings from interviews conducted with family members of persons with AIDS. Four stages of response are identified and characterized within each community: (i) life before AIDS, (ii) life during the discovery of AIDS, (iii) living with a person with AIDS and (iv) surviving those who have died from AIDS. The social marginalization of both communities is central in explaining how families respond to the disease. In Ciudad Netzahualcoyotl, social support derives from a local culture of kinship. In the gay community, on the other hand, solidarity arises out of friendship. Between social support and discrimination, many more “ambivalent” behaviours (neither fully supportive nor discriminating) are displayed by family members and friends. Fear, pre-existing family conflicts and prejudice nurture these negative responses. Family responses and the processes to which they give rise, also differ depending on whether or not a male or female household member is affected. Policy recommendations are made concerning how best to promote positive family and household responses to persons with HIV/AIDS and how to inhibit negative ones.

Gender, environment, and poverty interlinks: Regional variations and temporal shifts in rural India, 1971–1991

This paper analyzes the interrelationships between gender, poverty and the environment in rural India, focusing especially on regional variations and temporal shifts over 1971–1991. Briefly identifying the major factors underlying environmental degradation, it traces why and how this degradation, and the appropriation of natural resources by the state (statization) and by some individuals (privatization), tend to have particularly adverse implications for the female members of poor rural households. Regional and temporal variations in the likely intensity of these effects are traced both by examining individual indicators and through the specification of a set of aggregative indices, termed here as the GEP(V) indices. These indices measure differences between states in their gender-environment-poverty vulnerability (or what could be termed the “GEP-gap”) at a point in time, and over time. Governmental and community-initiated attempts at environmental protection and regeneration are also examined, and the importance of gender-directed policies highlighted.

Intertemporal substitution in labor supply: Micro evidence from rural India

This paper tests the hypothesis of intertemporal substitution in labor supply using time allocation data on adult male and female members of agricultural households in India. The robustness of the results with respect to functional form specification and credit constraints is examined. The female intertemporal elasticity of substitution is found to be significant but low, similar to estimates from the US. Elasticity estimates for males are negative or zero. Tests of symmetry and additive separability proved inconclusive as they are quite sensitive to functional form. In addition, the empirical analysis revealed significant differences in the elasticity of substitution of females depending on land ownership and whether the period of reference falls during planting and harvesting or after harvesting. These differences suggest that credit constraints limit the possibilities of substitution of labor supply across time.

Gender relations in the classical Greek household: the archaeological evidence

Despite the amount of textual material surviving from classical Greece, our knowledge of the household has remained limited because of the selectivity and orientation of those texts. In this paper, archaeological remains of late 5th- to late 4th-cent. houses are explored in order to shed light on aspects of domestic relations that recur most frequently in the sources: the relationship between male and female household members, and the way in which this was reinforced through the organization of the domestic environment. The traditional picture of a house divided into male and female areas is an over-simplification of a complex pattern of social relationships. A broader approach focuses on interaction between men and women, rather than on women's activity in isolation. The resultant, more detailed model for gender relations offers a glimpse of variability through space and time in how relationships were expressed spatially, and suggests the possibility of differences in the relationships themselves at different levels of the social hierarchy.

Participation of women in oyster and mussel farming in Western Visayas, Philippines

This paper provides baseline information on the involvement of women in small-scale coastal aquaculture such as the farming of slipper oyster, Crassostrea iredalei (Faustino 1933), and green mussel, Perna viridis (Linnaeus 1758). Data were gathered during a socio-economic survey of oyster and mussel farming in Western Visayas, Philippines conducted from July to December 1991.There were 175 respondents interviewed; 18.5% and 2.4% of oyster and mussel farmers were females. Fishing and related activities were the major source of livelihood for the majority of oyster and mussel farmers. In 1990, 79.4% and 69.8% of oyster and mussel farmers earned an annual income of less than P30 000 (1 USS P23). Based on the 1988 (latest data available) poverty threshold of P2654 (monthly) for Western Visayas, 80.4% and 71.7% of oyster and mussel farmers lived below poverty level in 1990. of 175 respondents. 79.3% and 48.2% of oyster and mussel farmers indicated that their household members participated in farming activities. More female household members were involved in oyster farming compared with mussel farming. Harvesting in mussel farming and both harvesting and marketing in oyster farming generated the widest participation among female household members.

Women's work or household strategies?

Women's work or household strategies considers some conceptual and methodological issues in seeking a better understanding of the position of women in urban areas. The author discusses the nature of the "household" and draws on the literature to highlight the unequal balance between male and female household members in terms of power and access to knowledge, resources and income.

"Recent Trends in Fertility and Nuptiality in China"

The State Family Planning Commission of China has conducted two large-scale fertility surveys, in 1982 and 1988, covering sample households containing 1 million and 2 million persons, respectively. These surveys obtained lifetime histories, including age at first marriage and at each birth for female members of the households from ages 15 to 67 in the first survey and from 15 to 57 in the second. The data provide detailed information on the extraordinary decline in the rate of childbearing in China (by 60% from 1970 to 1980). Because rising age at marriage played a significant role in this decline, the effect of changes in the pattern of entry into marriage on childbearing since 1980 was examined. There was a sharp increase in overall fertility (the total fertility rate) from 1980 to 1982; after falling to slightly below the 1980 level in 1985, the rate rose in 1985 and 1986 to well above that of 1980. A major factor in this arrested and partially reversed decline was a boom in marriage that followed a relaxation in 1980 of locally administered restrictions on marriage before the officially designated desirable age. In fact, the total fertility rate of married women (summed over duration of marriage rather than age) averaged much lower in the mid-1980s than in 1980. The summary rate of bearing second children increased markedly in the 1980s when calculated by age of women, but declined when calculated by duration of marriage, given the inflated number of recently married women.

Sex Differentials in Mortality: A Corollary of Son Preference?

The issue of sex differentials in mortality received attention as early as 1901 when the Super in tendents of Census remarked on the unusually high sex ratios found in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the North West Census of India 1901. More thorough investigations of the phenomenon were begun in the Sixties when detailed examinations of sex ratios in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh attributed their excess to higher female mortality (Vi:iaria (1967); Rukanuddin (1967); Bangladesh Retrospective Survey of Fertility and Mortality (BRSFM) (1977)]. A partial explanation was also found in the omission of female members of households from census counts because of culturally based reluctance to give out names of female household members to enumerators who were strangers plus understating of girls' ages as some form of 'protection' of nubile daughters from the outside world. Most recently, the topic of female disadvantage in mortality at almost all ages in the South Asian subcontinent has received renewed and urgent attention both in research and in the press. The alarm is due to the fact that, despite falls in mortality levels, sex differentials in disfavor of females persist in this region. Also, this remains a peculiarity of the region: whereas females suffer higher female mortality at some ages in some countries, generally female mortality is found to be lower than that of males (lDpez and Ruzicka 1983).

Same City, Different Worlds

Studies of residential location typically have treated the household unit as an undifferentiated whole and have not accounted for divergent needs and desires between male and female household members. Using the factorial survey technique, this article examines different preferences for neighborhood characteristics between men and women, focusing on women with varying family and labor market responsibilities. Based on a sample of 177 Syracuse, New York, metropolitan residents, this article shows the desires of men, housewives, single women, and employed women for varying combinations of neighborhood attributes. Findings show that men's desires for neighborhoods suit them well for the typical suburb, whereas women's desired neighborhood characteristics are found both in suburbs and in central cities. Women expressed contradictory desires, wanting the density, residential homogeneity, and racial and socio-economic composition of suburbs, but with the diversity and proximity of services found in cities. These findings suggest that for women suburbs need to include higher densities, public services, and transportation, but should retain much of their residential ambience.

Household Resources and U.S. Women's Work: Factors Affecting Gainful Employment at the Turn of the Century

Using the Census P.U.S., we focus on household composition and resources which influenced the distribution of paid work to female adult and younger members of households in 1900. Controls for individual and geographic variables are included. Two different household-level processes lowered women's rate of gainful employment, although their usage varied by race and ethnicity. First, home-based alternatives inhibited seeking jobs for which women might have been recorded as gainfully employed. Second, alternatives were structured by household composition. Families with older daughters or related single adults might urge these members to work, engendering a trade-off between the labor of wives and their older children or relatives. The presence of men or nonfamily also plays an important role. Advantages of our model include the study of work and family life as a single set of relations; the integration of the detail of historical studies in single cities with the measurement of national patterns through aggregate Census materials; and a focus on factors reducing the reporting, as well as actual rates, of women's gainful employment.