Women In Higher Education Research Articles

Predictors of Optimal Antenatal Care Service Utilization Among Adolescents and Adult Women in Bangladesh.

Introduction:Utilization of recommended antenatal care (ANC) throughout the pregnancy period is a proven healthy behavior in reducing maternal mortalities and morbidities. The objective of this study is to identify the demand side factors that are associated with the recommended utilization of ANC services among adolescents and adult women in Bangladesh.Method:This study utilized cross-sectional data from latest Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014. Data of a total of 4626 adolescents and adult women were analyzed. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed for identifying the significant determining factors associated with the ANC services utilization.Results:Approximately, 32% adult and 30% adolescent women utilized the recommended ANC care. The higher educated adolescents and adult women were 8.08 times (P < .001) and 2.98 times (P < .001) more likely to receive 4 or more ANC, respectively, compared to uneducated women. The richest quintile showed higher tendency to utilize optimum ANC services and had 2.70 times (P < .05) and 6.51 times (P < .001) more likelihood to receive optimal ANC services for adolescent and adult groups, respectively, compared to poorest quintile.Conclusion:Other than education and income, several other factors including mass -media, place of residence, working status, and geographical variations were significantly associated with recommended ANC. These findings might help health-care programmers and policy makers for initiating appropriate policy and programs for ensuring optimal ANC coverage for all. Ensuring adequate ANC regardless of economic status and residence of pregnant women could guarantee universal maternal health-care coverage as devoted to a national strategic guideline.

Increase in the completed cohort fertility of high-educated women - a focus in the creation of population policy in Serbia

Considering the recorded increase in the completed cohort fertility of high-educated women in the period 1991-2011, the aim of this paper is to indicate how many changes in the parity progression ratios contribute to this change. Using decomposition method based on population censuses 1991 and 2011, author decomposes the change in completed cohort fertility among high-educated women above reproductive age. The results show that the change in completed cohort fertility was mostly driven by increases in progression ratios to the first and the second birth. Given that there is a growing tendency to motherhood, but that it stops on one child (possibly two children), it can be said that the focus of population policy should be to facilitate decision making about entering into parenting.

Prevalence of and secular trends in diagnosed diabetes in Italy: 1980–2013

Background and aimsThe aim of this research was to examine the prevalence of diabetes in Italy over a 34-year period. Methods and resultsSelf-reported diabetes was assessed in eight health interview surveys of representative samples of Italian population aged 20 years and over. Crude and standardised prevalence were calculated by age, sex, educational level and area of residence. Logistic models were fitted to calculate the contribution of age and BMI to the trend in prevalence. In 2013 nearly 3.4 million Italians had a diagnosis of diabetes, more than twice as many as in 1980. The crude prevalence of diabetes in men rose from 3.3% in 1980 to 7.1% in 2013 (+115%), and from 4.7% to 6.8% in women (+45%). The prevalence was almost stable during the eighties, and started to rise from the beginning of the nineties. One third of the increase in men and two thirds in women is due to the ageing of the population, since the age-standardised prevalence increased by 79% in men and 14% in women. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased less steeply than diabetes, and their contribution to the trend in diabetes is less relevant than age. Prevalence rose more in the elderly, in low-educated men, and in high-educated women. ConclusionGiven that the ageing population plays a considerable role in explaining the trend, and that the number of people in the oldest age groups will continue to grow, the rise in the number of individuals with diabetes will represent a severe challenge for the national health system.

ESTIMATES OF THE MOTHERHOOD PENALTY IN RUSSIA

The paper concerns systematic differences in the wages of women with children and childless women, or «motherhood penalty», in modernRussia. The study bases on the 23rd wave of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS HSE). The authors employ a two-step model, the first stage of which uses a binary logistic regression to measure the selectivity of maternity, while the second reveals the effect of maternity status on the average monthly salary of women, adjusting for the observed selectivity. The obtained estimates indicate an average motherhood penalty of approximately 4% with a significant differentiation by women's education level. The authors conclude that high-educated women face 1,5 times higher penalty, and also receive it earlier: the difference in salaries of childless women and mothers with higher education appears after the first birth, and among women without higher education this phenomena is observed only after the second birth. In conclusion, the authors discuss the limitations of the presented analysis and indicate possible directions for future research on this topic.

Is Employment Polarisation Inevitable? Occupational Change in Ireland and Switzerland, 1970–2010

The routinisation thesis expects technology to hollow out the middle of the employment structure, leading to a uniform pattern of polarisation across affluent countries. This article argues that occupational change is also shaped by labour supply – particularly education and immigration – and institutions. Polarisation therefore represents just one scenario of occupational change. Our study of Ireland and Switzerland examines long-term change in the employment structure (1970–2010), using census data and an encompassing definition of the labour force. Results show no simple trend of occupational upgrading morphing into polarisation. Occupational upgrading occurred in both countries, with the largest employment gains in high-paid occupations and the largest losses in low-paid ones. Patterns of occupational change largely aligned with the evolution of labour supply, upgrading in the 1990s and 2000s being driven in both countries by higher educated women. Immigration supplied labour for low-end and mid-level jobs in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger era, and for low-paid occupations in Switzerland during the 1980s.

Joint effect of education and age at childbirth on the risk of caesarean delivery: findings from Germany 2008–2015

ObjectivesThis article aims at assessing the joint effect of maternal age and education on the risk of having a caesarean delivery. As high maternal education is often associated with lower caesarean-birth rates, but high-educated women tend to postpone motherhood, these effects may offset each other in traditional analyses. Study designSecondary analysis of the data from the German Family Panel pairfam. MethodsThe interview-based data refer to 1020 births between 2008 and 2015. We analyse only reports from mothers and calculate logistic regression models. ResultsThe caesarean delivery rate differs strongly between education levels, and low-educated women are at higher risk of having a caesarean delivery when controlling for parity and age. A positive age gradient is found, indicating a higher risk of caesarean section for older mothers. Without controlling for age, the association of education and caesarean section risk is weaker, i.e., effects of age and education partially level each other out. A model including an interaction term between age and education confirms this result. ConclusionsThe risk of having a caesarean delivery does not differ between levels of education when maternal age is not taken into account. Lower maternal education and higher age are both positively associated with the risk of experiencing a caesarean section in Germany. However, as higher educated women tend to have their children later, effects of education and age weigh each other out. Preventive campaigns should target women with lower education and raise women's awareness on the risks associated with late motherhood.

Women in Higher Education: Exploring Stressful Workplace Factors and Coping Strategies

For women administrators in higher education, workplace factors like managing multiple roles; work bleeding into personal life; issues with leadership; discrimination and marginalization; and role insufficiency (i.e., ambiguity in work roles and reduced sense of control) contribute to increased workplace stress. Individual coping responses are often determined by how stressors are perceived indicating whether an individual will effectively or ineffectively manage a stressor. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stress and health risk among women in administrative roles in higher education with a particular focus on coping strategies employed. The results suggest that women administrators are employing effective strategies when dealing with daily work stressors and have developed a degree of learned resourcefulness; however, health data indicate long-term potential for mental health issues. Further results suggest a dichotomous view of the role of leadership as both a cause of stress and a strategy for effectively managing stress.

Statistical Survey of Women in Higher Education in India

Statistical Survey of Women in Higher Education in India

Medial temporal lobe atrophy ratings in a large 75-year-old population-based cohort: gender-corrected and education-corrected normative data

ObjectivesTo find cut-off values for different medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) measures (right, left, average, and highest), accounting for gender and education, investigate the association with cognitive performance, and to compare with decline of cognitive function over 5 years in a large population-based cohort.MethodsThree hundred and ninety 75-year-old individuals were examined with magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and cognitive testing. The Scheltens’s scale was used to assess visually MTA scores (0–4) in all subjects. Cognitive tests were repeated in 278 of them after 5 years. Normal MTA cut-off values were calculated based on the 10th percentile.ResultsMost 75-year-old individuals had MTA score ≤2. Men had significantly higher MTA scores than women. Scores for left and average MTA were significantly higher in highly educated individuals. Abnormal MTA was associated with worse results in cognitive test and individuals with abnormal right MTA had faster cognitive decline.ConclusionAt age 75, gender and education are confounders for MTA grading. A score of ≥2 is abnormal for low-educated women and a score of ≥2.5 is abnormal for men and high-educated women. Subjects with abnormal right MTA, but normal MMSE scores had developed worse MMSE scores 5 years later.Key Points• Gender and education are confounders for MTA grading.• We suggest cut-off values for 75-year-olds, taking gender and education into account.• Males have higher MTA scores than women.• Higher MTA scores are associated with worse cognitive performance.

Who becomes a grandparent – and when? Educational differences in the chances and timing of grandparenthood

Background: Despite recent advances, the demographic understanding of grandparenthood remains limited. Objective: Our study examines educational differences in the transition to grandparenthood. Comparing East and West Germany, we analyze educational differences in a) the chance of becoming a grandparent, and b) the timing of grandparenthood for both men and women. Methods: We used fertility data across three family generations (German Ageing Survey, N = 2,434 men and women born 1933‒1948) and methods of survival time analysis to study educational gradients in the transition to grandparenthood. Results: We found a strong educational gradient in the chances of grandparenthood among West German women: Lower-educated women’s chances of becoming a grandmother were similar to higher-educated women’s chances of becoming a mother. Conclusions: Our findings have implications for research on multi-generational social mobility and on the consequences of grandparenthood. Contribution: Our study is the first to analyze how the transition to grandparenthood is socially stratified.

Improving Gender Equality in Higher Education in Turkey

Women’s representation in education-especially in higher education- is an important part of broader gender equity discussions. The gender imbalance in education is not a new issue; and Turkey is no exception. In fact, this has been the subject of an ongoing debate for years throughout the world. Governments from all around the world try to enhance gender equity in education, along with other facets of the issue, such as economical, social, work, etc. Since its inception, Turkey’s largest distance education provider Anadolu University, even though it is not an intended institutional policy, contribute to enhance the equal representation of both men and women in higher education. The study specifically aimed at to assess how gender ratio has evolved over 32 years, whether spatial clustering exists within the gender data around the country, and to what extent women were represented in higher education programs. To answer these queries, gender ratio datasets were examined using visual (mapping) and spatial cluster analyses. Findings support that, distant programs of the university have helped more women participate in higher education programs across the country over the years, leading to relatively more normalized distribution of gender in education across the geographical regions. Findings are encouraging for the University administration towards tailoring programs to attract more women, and the disadvantaged groups into the academic programs. Also, fee and payment structures of the courses can be re-aligned to better serve disadvantaged regions of the country. In addition, institutions all around the world providing mass distance education can review Anadolu University’s cost and program structure to create their own structures to enhance their gender equality issues in education.

Withstanding our Status as Outsiders-Within: Professional Counterspaces for African American Women Student Affairs Administrators

Although engagement in social and academic counterspaces has been studied as a strategy used by African American college students to withstand racially inhospitable campus climates, very little research documents the impact of professional counterspaces on African American women student affairs administrators. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to explore how consistently participating in the African American Women’s Summit (AAWS), a professional development program in the United States designed by and for African American women student affairs administrators (i.e., a professional counterspace), assisted these women working at PWIs to withstand their status as outsiders-within. Findings revealed three primary ways participants benefited from participating in the AAWS: identification and validation of oppressive experiences, dissemination of strategies to resist oppressions, and fortification of African American women’s standpoint. Based upon the findings of this study, it can be presumed that African American women in higher education may be better equipped to identify (and thus better prepared to respond to) microaggressive incidents, find greater access to survival and success strategies, and develop a healthier standpoint when engaged in culturally homogenous professional counterspaces that are developed by and for themselves.

Changing Roles of Women: Examining the Reciprocal Effects of Female Academics’ Job and Family Roles in Public Universities in Ghana

AbstractThe role of women in society seems to be predefined in terms of cultural and physiological lines. Some people think the woman is not capable of taking up some executive positions, because they are weak and too feeble to handle certain kinds of work. However, the last decade has seen huge progress in the employment of women in the formal sector. This study therefore explores the factors that affect the work and family life of female lecturers. Data was generated from the administration of questionnaires on 105 women lecturers, who were conveniently selected from two public universities in the central region of Ghana. Our findings from the study indicated that factors such as teaching large classes, lack of teaching/learning materials, family responsibilities and pressure and demanding Deans and Heads of Departments, affected female lecturers’ job performance. The results also suggest that females academics involved in the study were least bothered about issues on their promotion and personal goals. We recommended that University management would have to come to terms with the requirements of managing tension among women to make the environment potentiating and favourable so as to keep adroit women in higher education.

Women’s Worldwide Education–employment Connection: A Multilevel Analysis of the Moderating Impact of Economic, Political, and Cultural Contexts

Summary Education is a core driver of female employment and empowerment all over the world. As development studies have shown, the strength of this educational effect however varies considerably across countries. Theoretically, we employ mechanisms from human capital theory and modernization theory that explicate the education–employment link. Next, insights from the gender and development approach lead us to hypothesize how economic, political, and socio-cultural features of countries might moderate this effect of educational attainment. Using World Values Survey data on women surveyed in 139 country–year combinations, we empirically test whether and how a country’s labor market structure, social policy, and gender norms condition the influence of women’s education attainment on employment. Employing multilevel logistic regression models with cross-level interactions, our results indicate that in countries where service sector jobs are relatively scarce, having a higher education is more important for women to get a job; it seems that highereducated women push lowereducated women out of employment under those circumstances. Most importantly, women’s educational attainment makes more of a difference in countries with conservative gender norms; in these countries women’s employment is considerably lower than in more liberal countries, but to a lesser extent for higher educated women.

AN OUTLINE OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM DEVELOPED IN MUSLIM BENGAL UNDER THE TURKO-AFGHAN SULTANATE (1204-1576)

AbstractThe first verse of the Holy Qur’an indicates that education is an integral part of Islam. Since then, educational development has been a parallel to the development of Muslim society. From the beginning of the Muslim conquest of Bengal by the Turks in the early 13th century, the society had also witnessed the rapid development of a new educational system. Before Islam in Bengal, The Buddhist and Brahmanic religious centres mainly served as educational centres. Cultivation of knowledge was instructed through the Sanskrit language and limited only to the upper classes people. But the scenario got a change under the Muslims both- Turko-Afghan Sultanate (1204-1576 A.D.) and the Mughals (1576-1757 A.D.). The period witnessed a rapid advancement in the educational field, which changed the traditional system. The Rulers patronized the spread of education considering it as their religious obligation. Besides Sultans, the Sufis, Ulamas, Nobles, Chieftains-all contributed in this regard. Masjids and Madrasahs mainly served as centre of Muslim education. In the Masjids, informal teaching was offered in all branches of Islamic studies, from elementary to the highest level. The Imams of the Masjids were acknowledged teachers of the community. Madrasahs were the most important institution, where formal education was instructed. Maktabs were used for primary education, which were organized either in the Masjids or private houses. Majilises were developed around individual scholars as higher educational centres such as the learning centre of Shaikh Jalaluddin Tabrizi at Deotala, Shaikh Sharfuddin Abu Tawama at Sonargaon, Dhaka etc. There was co-education at primary level, but the higher education for women was limited only to the higher &amp; high-middle class families. Different branches of Islamic Sciences such as Tafsir, Hadith, fiqh-Jurisprudence, logic together with many diverse subjects such as natural sciences, mathematics, medicine, agriculture, astronomy, geography and Arabic &amp; Persian languages and literature were taught in these institutions. To maintain these educational institutions, the rulers provided state patronage, granted rent-free lands as endowment. Thus, a very new and diversified educational system flourished in the society of Bengal under the Muslim rulers, which opened learning facilities for all the people, founding many educational institutions throughout the country. The paper is mainly aimed at discovering the nature and dimensions of educational system, which developed particularly during the Turko-Afghan Muslim Sultanate (1204-1576 A.D.) in Bengal and identify how the system can contribute to improve the present educational system of the country.

Inequalities in the utilization of health care services in a transition European country: results from the national population health survey.

To examine demographic, socio-economic, and health status inequalities in the utilization of health care services (UHCS) in the Republic of Srpska (RS), Bosnia and Herzegovina. Data were retrieved from the 2010 National Health Survey for the RS adult population (n=4128). A complex sample design was taken into account for statistical analysis. As compared to men, a higher percentage of women visited a family physician (FP), urgent care department, dentist and private doctor. Higher educated women and those worse-off (OR 1.17) more frequently visited FP. Hospitalization (OR 4.56 for males; OR 9.17 for females), visit to urgent care department (OR 3.19 for males; OR 2.42 for females) and visits to FP in females (OR 1.46) were associated with poor self-perceived health. No inequalities by wealth index were found for the utilization of FP, hospitalization, urgent care and dentist among persons with poor self-perceived health status. The present study confirmed demographic, socio-economic and health status inequalities in the UHCS in RS. These findings have significant implications for health policy makers that seek to provide equal care for all people living in RS.

Gender Stereotypes and the Role of Women in Higher Education (Azerbaijan Case Study)

Gender stereotypes are common among students of both sexes and among the teachers and students’ family environment. In addition to communication processes, they are manifested in the phenomenon of gender-based division of learning and the hidden curriculum. In developing countries, the problem of access to higher education is also unsolved, not only because of socioeconomic reasons but also because of psychological reasons—devaluation of education and professional potential of women. These factors have a negative influence on social and economic processes in general. The study of gender stereotypes is the foundation for strategies’ development to overcome gender inequality and implementing a model of gender parity (egalitarian model). This model assumes that the change must take place on both sides: the impact on people’s behavior by laws prohibiting discrimination, providing financial support and openings for women students; and changes in belief prevailing in the society by initiating discussions in media, educational institutions, and community organizations with a reasoned positioning of gender equality importance.

Cocoons as a space of their own: a case of Emirati women learners

This article focuses on ‘cocooning’ as a spatial practice of Emirati higher education women learners in a single-sex learning context, which emerged from exploring the intersectional and intertwined relationship of gender, place and culture with its unique cultural formation that informs women learners’ spatiality. To understand women’s spatiality and explore these intersecting relations, I conducted an ethnographic qualitative inquiry, applying multiple levels of data gathering and analysis. I also utilised social theories of space as a theoretical framework, specifically the social construction of space and Lefebvre’s triad of perceived, conceived and lived space. Cocooning, represented in these women learners’ unique spatial appropriation in their quest for a space of their own, emerged as a pervasive socially constructed spatial theme. As a spatial practice, it was largely influenced by the women learners’ cultural model, including socio-cultural status and gender roles, rooted in their national, historical colonial and traditional past as well as current economic, political, demographic, academic-institutional and global positions and demands. Furthermore, cocooning is a spatial representation of what also seems a universal longing among women, beyond context and culture, for a space of one’s own. Such a spatial need is manifested differently in the perceived space while shared in the conceived and lived.

The association between economic development, education and FGM in six selected African countries

Background: The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is highly prevalent in countries in African and the Middle East and is present at all levels of society, due to beliefs that it ensures girls' purification for their marriage. Objective: To examine the effect of education and economic development on FGM by selected co-variants. Methods: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) (2010–13) data sets were used. The data used were from six selected African countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone and Somalia. Findings: The prevalence of FGM was significantly higher in Somalia (98.6%), Guinea (97.8%) and Mali (92.6%) in comparison with other selected countries. The results showed that education was statistically significant (168.34; P&lt;0.001) in changing the percentage of FGM practices in the selected countries. The economic status of women was directly associated with mutilation practices, with FGM less likely to be found among higher educated women. Conclusions: In these countries, various programmes are run by the government, which have not affected FGM practices, as community beliefs are often stronger than a government programme. It may take a long time for significant decline of FGM, but increasing women's education level may lead to an immediate reduction in prevalence.

Balancing life and work by unbending gender: Early American women psychologists' struggles and contributions.

Women's participation in the work force shifted markedly throughout the twentieth century, from a low of 21 percent in 1900 to 59 percent in 1998. The influx of women into market work, particularly married women with children, put pressure on the ideology of domesticity: an ideal male worker in the outside market married to a woman taking care of children and home (Williams, 2000). Here, we examine some moments in the early-to-mid-twentieth century when female psychologists contested established norms of life-work balance premised on domesticity. In the 1920s, Ethel Puffer Howes, one of the first generation of American women psychologists studied by Scarborough and Furumoto (1987), challenged the waste of women's higher education represented by the denial of their interests outside of the confines of domesticity with pioneering applied research on communitarian solutions to life-work balance. Prominent second-generation psychologists, such as Leta Hollingworth, Lillian Gilbreth, and Florence Goodenough, sounded notes of dissent in a variety of forums in the interwar period. At mid-century, the exclusion of women psychologists from war work galvanized more organized efforts to address their status and life-work balance. Examination of the ensuing uneasy collaboration between psychologist and library scholar Alice Bryan and the influential male gatekeeper E. G. Boring documents gendered disparities in life-work balance and illuminates how the entrenched ideology of domesticity was sustained. We conclude with Jane Loevinger's mid-century challenge to domesticity and mother-blaming through her questioning of Boring's persistent focus on the need for job concentration in professional psychologists and development of a novel research focus on mothering.