Gender Markers Research Articles

Perceptions of gender equity and markers of achievement in a National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre: a qualitative study

BackgroundThe need to improve gender equity (GE) in academic medicine is well documented. Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs), partnerships between leading National Health Service (NHS) organizations and universities in England, conduct world-class translational research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2011, eligibility for BRC funding was restricted to universities demonstrating sustained GE success recognized by the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science Silver awards. Despite this structural change, GE research in BRC settings is underdeveloped, yet critical to the acceleration of women’s advancement and leadership. To explore both women’s and men’s perceptions of GE and current markers of achievement in a BRC setting.MethodsThematic analysis of data from two research projects: 53 GE survey respondents’ free-text comments (34 women, 16 men), and 16 semi-structured interviews with women affiliated to the NIHR Oxford BRC.ResultsFour major themes emerged from the analysis: perceptions of the Athena SWAN Charter for Women in Science (GE policy); views on monitoring GE in BRCs; views on current markers of achievement in academia and GE; and recommendations for actions to improve GE in BRC settings. Monitoring of GE in BRCs was deemed to be important, but complex. Participants felt that current markers of achievement were not equitable to women, as they did not take contextual factors into account such as maternity leave and caring responsibilities. BRC-specific organizational policies and metrics are needed in order to monitor and catalyse GE.ConclusionsMarkers of achievement for monitoring GE in BRCs should consider contextual factors specific to BRCs and women’s career progression and professional advancement. GE markers of achievement should be complemented with broader aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion.

A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey in Kenya (NTDS)-A Baseline Study of Transgender Persons in Kenya: Life experiences and Access to Health Services

The study contained the underpinnings on protection issues against violence and discrimination. The theme of this report deconstructs how discriminatory laws and sociocultural norms continue to marginalize and exclude intersex and gender-diverse persons. The report established that they are excluded from education, healthcare, housing, employment and occupation and other sectors giving rise to a host of other problems in a context where access to economic, social and cultural rights is hampered resulting in poverty and exclusion. They have a lower social-economic status due to the limiting access to assets that are essential to enjoy the full range of human rights. A glance at these issues quickly affirms the intersectionality of all human rights grounded in the firm commitment of leaving no one behind under the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. This report offers a window opportunity through which to gauge the character and scale of anti- discrimination data and the linkage with root causes, dialogue, consultation and cooperation with state and non-state actors, including implementation of international instruments, with identification of good practices and gaps. National and county governments have a fundamental responsibility to respect, protect and promote the human rights of transgender people in Kenya by taking action to ensure timely access to appropriate primary health care in public-funded health programs. There is need of development of guidelines on achieving universal access to acceptable, competent, appropriate, and affordable care. Moreover, there is the need of taking action to ensure laws, policies, programmes and procedures do not discriminate against transgender people through an effective and accessible legal and services framework. In addition, there is the need of taking action to allow individuals change their legal name and gender, including the gender markers on official documents, put in place quick, accessible and transparent procedures aimed at providing transgender people with official national documents. There is the need of taking action to ensure equal protection under the law, adopting positive legislative, judicial, administrative, educative, and other appropriate measures to protect these rights. Also, it is recommended there is the need to ensure freedom from cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of transgender people. Keywords: Transgender Persons, Life experiences, Access to Health Services, Kenya

“NoL, please be away from my life.” - Pejorative neologisms for stigmatizing males in Chinese micro-blogging

This study investigates the use of an emergent pejorative “蝻” nǎn by Chinese micro-blogging users on Weibo. The phonetic part “南” nán (south) of “蝻” (nymph of locust - NoL) is a homophone of “男” (male) in Chinese with a dehumanized quality; hence “蝻” was often used to devalue males, thereby churning out various associated neologisms in cyberspace. Data were collected from 898 unique Weibo postings included “蝻”. The focal neologisms were coded according to six identified linguistic structures, including “蝻” associated with identity pejoration, adjectives, affective terms, taboo terms, feminine gender markers and others. Underneath its superficial pejoration, we argue that “蝻” can be adopted as contextual strategies to counter gender issues via the above-mentioned language play, projecting a shifting gender ideology in China’s cyberspace.

Гендерно-нейтральный язык в университетской среде Германии

The aim of the study is to determine the features of using gender-neutral units by the German universities, based on the official pages of the oldest educational institutions. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, unlike a number of works devoted to general, often theoretical, issues of gender problematics in various languages, the study shows how and in what way the strategies of gender neutrality of the German language are implemented in the university environment in practice. As a result, it has been proved that the German language in the university environment tends to gender neutrality. Along with the feminization of language units, language neutralization is actively used, in which gender markers are completely erased.

Tracking Inequity: An Actionable Approach to Addressing Inequities in Physics Classrooms

Recent studies reveal people from marginalized groups (e.g., people of color and women) continue to earn physics degrees at alarmingly low rates. This phenomenon is not surprising given reports of the continued perception of physics as a masculine space and the discrimination faced by people of color and women within the field. To realize the vision of an equitable physics education, fully open to and supportive of marginalized groups, teachers need ways of seeing equity as something that is concrete and actionable on an everyday basis. In our work, teachers have found value in intentionally reflecting on their instruction and their students explicitly in terms of race, gender, and other social markers. We find they are then better positioned to build equitable physics classrooms. Without a focus on specific social markers, common obstacles such as color-evasiveness emerge, which obstruct the pursuit of equity in classrooms.

"Losing Faith in My Body": Body Image in Individuals Diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Disease as Reflected in Drawings and Narratives.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the dependency on dialysis is an abrupt life-changing event that harms a patient’s life (e.g., social relationships, work, and well-being). This study aimed to examine how individuals who undergo chronic dialysis due to failure end-stage renal disease perceive their bodies, as reflected in drawings and narratives. Following ethical approval and signing a consent form to participate in the study, 29 adults between the ages of 20 and 85 who have undergone dialysis filled out an anonymous questionnaire that consisted of the following measures: The Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression (CES-D), The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), and The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). After completion, they were asked to draw their self-figure before and after being diagnosed and narrate it. The data were quantitatively and narratively analyzed. The results revealed high levels of depression and concerns regarding body fitness and weight. Few significant differences were noted between self-figured drawings before and after the diagnosis, such as the body line and gender markers. Additionally, Fitness Evaluation and Overweight Preoccupation were significant among the participants.

Improving Access to Legal Gender Affirmation for Transgender Women Involved in the Criminal-Legal System.

Transgender women of color experience interlocking systems of oppression rooted in racism and transphobia, which fuel economic vulnerability and overrepresentation in the criminal-legal system. Legal gender affirmation, which refers to changing one's name and gender marker on official documents, has the potential to mitigate these issues by improving access to employment, housing, education, health care, and social services. These services are particularly important for transgender women of color with criminal records, a history of incarceration, or other legal infractions; however, 23 states have policies that restrict access to legal gender affirmation for these individuals. Alongside eliminating restrictive policies to obtain legal gender affirmation, medical-legal partnerships in these states may address recidivism and health inequities among transgender women of color.

Vulnerabilities of homeless women: social markers of gender and race/color

Objective: to unveil the vulnerabilities of homeless women linked to the social markers of gender and race/color. Methods: qualitative study, developed with ten homeless women through participant observation, field diary, and sociodemographic questionnaire, systematized based on content analysis. Results: it was found that gender identity and race/color act as potentiators of the situation of vulnerability of women. It is believed that structural racism and machismo feed back into the streets and perpetuate themselves in a perverse cycle of denial of women's rights, which is potentiated by the omission of the State and extensive social and economic inequality. Conclusion: gender and race/color potentiate the vulnerabilities of homeless women that intersect precarious social conditions, denial of rights, and favor illness. Contributions to practice: to present information that enables reflections and creation of care strategies for homeless women, understood in their singularities.

The Poetics of Dating in WhatsApp Memes: Imagery of the Market

Dating involves feelings and words relating to sex which is considered a subject of social condemnation (taboo). Despite the shame associated with such a subject, human beings still devise ways to refer to them in a manner that is socially and ethically acceptable. Creativity is an essential aspect of language that has enabled human beings to use language in novelty. This paper analyses memes to determine how the market imagery has been used to demarcate dating, highlight the properties of the language in use, and portray markers of gender. This research was guided by the theory of meaning in use propounded by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953). This paper showed that the market imagery had been used symbolically, enabling WhatsApp users to use indirect expressions to talk about dating and other obscene things. WhatsApp users have resorted to humour to release the tension associated with dating frustrations. Lastly, the names of foods, chauvinistic verbs and basic terms have been used as markers of gender. The data that has been utilised in this research has been collected from WhatsApp statuses. This paper has shown how memes manipulate language to reflect social-cultural realities in the 21st century, specifically in the context of dating in Kenya.

Гендерные особенности передачи экспертного мнения при оказании речевого воздействия в англоязычной интернет-коммуникации в период пандемии

The article is devoted to the identification of gender peculiarities in applying the strategy of expert opinion demonstration as one of the ways to manipulate recipients on the Internet. On the basis of linguistic analysis of English blogs with expert content selected by the method of continuous sampling, specific speech tactics which express gender identity in the process of expert opinion presentation are characterized. The interdependence between the functional load of the blogs and the speech tools used by the bloggers is established and analyzed. It was revealed that female experts implemented the tactics of uncertainty, justification and intimacy expressed in conditional sentences, just to convey hesitation, means of semantic hyperbolization of speech, appeal to another person's opinion and the results of other people's research, quotes, dialogicity of utterances in the blogs. The blogs created by male experts featured implementation of the tactics of we-community, knowledge demonstration, intimidation, beliefs with high degree of textual cohesion, description of negative scenario in case of the expert's recommendations ignoring, rhetorical questions and adverb instead embedding, negative constructions and verbs in the imperative mood. The identified tactics and speech means used for these tactics implementation are qualified as gender markers of manipulative influence on the user through the expression of expert opinion.

Correlates of excessive daytime sleepiness in obstructive sleep apnea: Results from the nationwide SESAR cohort including 34,684 patients.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a hallmark symptom in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is commonly eliminated by obstructive sleep apnea therapy and constitutes a major treatment indication. This study aimed to identify determinants of excessive daytime sleepiness by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) scores in the large, representative national obstructive sleep apnea patient cohort of the Swedish Sleep Apnea Registry (SESAR, www.sesar.se). Data from 34,684 patients with obstructive sleep apnea recruited at 23 sites (33% females, mean age 55.7 ± 13.7 years, BMI 30.2 ± 6.3kg/m2 , AHI 29.1 ± 22.3, and ODI 24.9 ± 21.4 events/h) had a mean ESS score in the mild to moderate excessive daytime sleepiness range (9.7 ± 4.9). The proportion of patients with excessive daytime sleepiness was 41.4% in men and 44.6% in women. Independent predictors of excessive daytime sleepiness included gender, age, and hypoxic markers (high ODI and low mean saturation). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify significant predictors for the ESS score and for excessive daytime sleepiness (ESS ≥10) amongst anthropometric factors, sleep apnea frequency (apnea-hypopnea index (AHI)), markers of intermittent hypoxia (oxygen desaturation index (ODI), mean saturation (mSaO2 )), as well as prevalent comorbidities. Depression was associated with higher ESS scores and hypertension/atrial fibrillation with lower scores. The oxygen desaturation index provided a stronger predictor of excessive daytime sleepiness than the apnea-hypopnea index. The severity of obstructive sleep apnea, captured as the apnea-hypopnea index, was only weakly associated with daytime sleepiness in this representative obstructive sleep apnea patient cohort. Age had different effects in men and women.The impact of obstructive sleep apnea in a wider patient related perspective needs to be determined after the inclusion of factors other than the apnea-hypopnea index.

Women, Peace, and Security and Increasing Gendered Risk in the Era of COVID-19: Insights from Nepal and Sri Lanka

Abstract This article analyzes the effects of COVID-19 on women and girls. It examines policy responses to the pandemic crisis and its implications on the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda in postwar Nepal and Sri Lanka. Building on our previous work in Nepal and Sri Lanka, we rely on secondary studies, news sources, and governmental and nongovernmental organization reports and social media from March 2020 through March 2022 to demonstrate our argument that policymakers should place women and girls at the center of COVID-19 recovery plans. We further stress the need for an intersectional approach to understand the contextual relationships among gender, race, class, caste, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and additional markers that situate women's and girls’ experiences. The WPS agenda promotes women and girls’ participation in peace and security governance and has seen significant rollbacks given the impacts of the pandemic. We conclude by sketching new policy frontiers for the WPS agenda and urge WPS implementers to rethink their approach to WPS policies to promote women's diverse needs and interests in postwar Nepal and Sri Lanka in pandemic recovery policies.

Dual-Energy Computed Tomography-Based Quantitative Bone Marrow Imaging in Non-Hematooncological Subjects: Associations with Age, Gender and Other Variables.

Background: Our aim is to assess the utility and associations of quantitative bone marrow attenuation (BMA) values measured on clinical dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) exams in non-hematooncologic subjects with skeletal regions, patient age, gender, and other clinical variables. Methods: Our local ethics committee approved this retrospective image data analysis. Between July 2019 and July 2021, 332 eligible patients (mean age, 64 ± 18 years; female, 135) were identified. Inclusion criteria were the availability of a standardized abdominopelvic DECT data set acquired on the same scanner with identical protocol. Eleven regions-of-interest were placed in the T11-L5 vertebral bodies, dorsal iliac crests, and femur necks. Patient age, gender, weight, clinical, habitual variables, inflammation markers, and anemia were documented in all cases. Results: Multi-regression analyses (all, p < 0.05) identified age as the strongest predictor of lumbar BMA (standardized coefficient: β = −0.74), followed by CRP (β = 0.11), LDH (β = 0.11), and gender (β = −0.10). In the lower thoracic spine, age was the strongest predictor (β = −0.58) of BMA, followed by gender (β = −0.09) and LDH (β = 0.12). In femoral bones, age was negatively predictive of BMA (β = −0.12), whereas LDH and anemia were positively predictive (β = 0.16 both). Heart insufficiency significantly decreased (β = 0.12, p = 0.034) a BMA value gradient from higher to lower HU values along the vertebrae T11 and L5, whereas age significantly increased this gradient (β = −0.2, p ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: DECT-based BMA measurements can be obtained from clinical CT exams. BMA values are negatively associated with patient age and influenced by gender, anemia, and inflammatory markers.

Narrative and Gendered Identities: A Feminist Narratological Reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and D.H Lawrence’s The Fox

The significant role that narrative strategy, plot structure, characterization, perspectivity and language, precisely, metaphors and metanarratives can play as textual sites of gendered identities has been recognized within feminist narratology which is an interdisciplinary sub-domain within narrative theory. Although the central role that narrative might proffer in the analysis of gender has over the last twenty years featured as a crucial area of research in feminist narratology, over-trodden data like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and D. H. Lawrence’s The Fox, seem to have received less attention in the light of categories or narrative strategies which can serve as sites of gender. In privileging feminist narratology as a suitable theoretical framework for locating, interpreting and analyzing sites of gendered identity construction in Things Fall Apart and The Fox, this study argues that the two text teem with narrative structures and strategies as well as linguistic evidences like metaphors and folkloric metanarratives, that may encourage a categorization of people into male and female; masculinities, femininities, and the subaltern. Gender markers: sexuality, characterization (psychological and biological elements), male-centered or “masculinist” plot structure, folkloric metanarratives, linguistic elements like metaphors and images in general as well as social codes that are gender-specific and that play a huge role in the context of the cultural construction/transmission and memory of gender are largely represented in the chosen texts. These textual devices have a highly ideological function: they are creative medial elements that play an important role in constructing and passing on the complex system of values, norms and ideas which constitute a society’s patriarchal mentality.

The Hidden Face of the Moon: Unveiling the Minutiae of a Black Woman’s Experience on the Streets

The homeless population is mostly male. When it comes to the female presence, especially when considering the markers of race, gender and class, the invisibility and delegitimization are even more insidious. The aim of this article is to identify the singularities of a black woman living on the streets and to understand them based on the relationships she establishes with the territory. The method used was the case study of a homeless black woman, constructed through body map storytelling. Thematic analysis of the empirical content was used in the light of decolonial criticism. Luna, the protagonist of the story, reveals in her narratives, the multiple dimensions of the presence of the female body on the street, the process of taking care of oneself and the other, considering the intrinsic relationships with the territory, with the use of drugs and with the male figure. Thus, unveiling society’s views in relation to the place of invisibility of these women and creating strategies to face the colonial, racist and patriarchal logic of valuing knowledge is what Luna makes explicit with her trajectory of struggle, survival, and resilience on the streets.

Adoleszenz – Name – Internet: wie nennen sich deutschsprachige Mädchen im Netz?

The authors conducted the present study across onomastics and social-, gender-, Internet,- and psycho-linguistics. The paper analyzes virtual anthroponyms (so-called nicknames or usernames) that are result from self-nominations by Germanspeaking adolescent girls on the social Internet services Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, and TikTok. The study material covers four years (2017–2020) and examines 2,363 nicknames, as well as the accompanying personal metadata of 11–17-year-old users along with the results of online and offline interviews with informants. The paper seeks the main goal and hypothesis of t finding a correlation between the gender-age characteristics of adolescent Internet users and their linguistic embodiment in virtual communication in the form of self-nominations. The authors study and describe nicknames based on the positions of their semantic motivation and meaning, nominative potential, structural and grammatical design, and graphic organization. The linguocultural component of virtual self-nominations receives special emphasis. In addition, the authors provide the results of an experiment to determine the stability of nicknames over time. A descriptive linguistic analysis of the data reveals clear trends in the creation of self-nominations by adolescent girls. The authors discovered different specific gender and age markers through the lens of virtual anthroponyms: formation of self-concept against the background of striving for an emphasized individualization and simultaneous need for social acceptance, distinctly feminine manifestations, a tendency to positive or overestimated self-esteem, and increased interest in the pubertal phase. The users are equally inclined to deanonymize and to anonymize their personalities in the web space. However, in both cases, it is particularly important for girls to transfer their original self-nominative intentions to nicknames. The development of cognitive abilities and critical thinking by adolescent girls is manifested in linguistic creativity and involvement in the problematic or cultural context of interest.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Relevance of the voice in the process of gender affirmation in transsexual women: A cross-sectional study

Introduction. Voice is a gender marker and can therefore be a source of gender dysphoria. There is a relationship between symptoms of anxiety and depression and voice-related difficulties in trans women (TW). Hormonal replacement treatment (HRT) in TW does not play a role in voice feminization. Access to voice feminization procedures is limited while the population demanding transgender healthcare is increasing. Objective. To describe the degree of voice-related dysphoria experienced by TW that seek a voice feminization treatment. Method. A descriptive, cross-sectional study, 26 TW completed quality of life (QoL) questionnaires and stated their reasons for seeking voice feminization. Fundamental frequency (f0) was measured. Results. 77% of the participants were legally recognized as women, 96% were under HRT, and 27% had a history of gender affirmation surgery. Median f0 for TW was 131 Hz. f0 had a poor correlation with QoL measures. The mean score in the Trans Women Voice Questionnaire was 95 (SD = 14.3). Achieving a feminine voice that allows gender conformity was the main reason for seeking treatment. Discussion and conclusion. Voice non-conformity affects QoL. None of the participants perceived their voice as feminine while 97% described their ideal voice as feminine. The inability to satisfy gender assurance needs has a detrimental effect on QoL. Improving access to affirmation procedures in public institutions without pathologization of transgender people is a pending agenda. Despite evidence that TW benefit from voice feminization treatments, it is difficult to define how to measure success.

Les classes nominales en tuwari (Nouvelle-Guinée)

Abstract This article describes noun classes in Tuwari, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. The exponents of gender are clitics, realized once per clause-level phrase, and always at their right periphery. In noun phrases, the exponent is a gender-agreeing article, while on verb phrases it is a subject index. This agreement system is uncanonical since it brings into play a set of complex syntactic rules. As in other Papuan languages, such gender markers used at the periphery of the noun phrase share formal and semantic properties with markers of subordination.

Gender and Noun Class Markers in Kubeo (Tukanoan)

Abstract This paper analyzes Kubeo’s system of nominal classification from a synchronic, diachronic and typological perspective. It is argued that Kubeo has two distinct but integrated systems, labeled as “gender” and “noun class markers” (CMs). Gender contrasts animacy and number for all nouns and sex-based gender only for animate nouns. CMs mostly code for physical properties. Both systems are productively used in several morphosyntactic, semantic and discourse functions, such as noun derivation, syntactic agreement, individuation, reference identification and management. The paper focusses on highlighting formal and functional asymmetries between the systems, especially in situations where gender and noun class overlap and compete. It is shown that despite a great deal of functional equivalence, Kubeo’s “gender” is more similar to typologically defined gender systems than the language’s class marker system, while the latter, by contrast, is more similar to specific types of noun class and classifier systems found in Amazonia and elsewhere.

Relationship Between PEMT Gene rs7946 Polymorphism and Nutritional Choline Status in Association With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Risk

ObjectivesPhosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase (PEMT) rs7946 genetic polymorphism and nutritional choline status on nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) risk have not been well elucidated. The aims of the study were to investigate the choline-polymorphic relationship on NAFL risk.MethodsThe study recruited 253 patients with metabolic disorders from one regional hospital in 2020. By abdominal ultrasound diagnosis, 99 patients with hepatic steatosis (HS) and 99 age- and sex-matched controls without HS were included for the study. Habitual dietary choline intakes were assessed using validated quantitative FFQ by a face-to-face interview. PEMT rs7946 (V175M, G to A substitution) polymorphism, blood choline concentrations and metabolic disorders factors were analyzed for their interaction with HS risk.ResultsGenetic distribution of PEMT rs7946 polymorphism significantly differed in controls (GG: 48%, GA, 32%, AA, 20%) and in the HS cases (GG: 69%, GA: 26%, AA: 5%) (p = 0.003). Higher values of body mass index (BMI), serum triglycerides (TG), insulin resistance (HOMO-IR), alanine aminotransferase and lower levels of HDL were associated with HS cases. Plasma free choline levels were significantly higher in HS cases (median:12.4 μM, quartile range (9.9–14.8)) than in controls (median: 10.6 μM, quartile range (9.3–12.8)) (p = 0.001). The daily dietary intake of total choline and the choline derivatives did not differ between the two groups. After adjustment of age, gender, BMI, energy consumption, fiber intake, and blood metabolic markers (TG, LDL, HDL and HOMA-IR), odds ratios of HS were 7-fold increase (OR: 7.6, 95% CI: 2.3–24.4) for patients with PEMT rs7946 GG genotype of high plasma choline level (> median levels: 11.6 μM) as compared with GA/AA genotype of plasma choline level lower than 11.6 μM.ConclusionsThe PEMT rs7946 GG genotype in combination with high plasma choline levels was associated with increased risks of hepatic fat accumulation in patients with metabolic disorders.Funding SourcesThe Ministry of Health and Welfare-affiliated Taipei Hospital. The Ministration of Science and Technology, Taiwan, ROC.