Lack Of Female Participation Research Articles

Influencing Factors Impacting Women to select Engineering- A Range of Perspectives

To find solutions to complex problems, engineering practice needs to adapt and embrace diverse thinking. The lack of female participation in engineering fields, in the western world including New Zealand, at the tertiary education level (post secondary/high school level e.g., university, polytechnic, etc.) has been a barrier for diversity, equity and innovation in both the industry and academic professions. Non-diverse professions miss out valuable contributions and new ways of approaching problems that a varied workforce brings. New Zealand needs to mitigate the gender bias to ensure a diversity of skills and knowledge in the engineering profession is fostered. This paper presents findings from three studies as part of a larger research project aimed at investigating influencing factors that contribute to female participation in engineering studies at the tertiary level in New Zealand. In the three studies researchers explored student teachers, current polytechnic engineering students and high school students’ perceptions, experiences, and influences related to engineering.
 The first study investigated future teachers of children aged 11-13 years perceptions of engineering and engineers. The second study investigated the impacts and influences that led domestic and international female engineering students choose the Civil Engineering programme at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec). The third study investigated the impacts and influences that led to Year 12 and 13 students to enrol in a trades engineering related course at Wintec. The three completed studies deployed qualitative research methods using focus group and individual interviews.
 The first study found that participants held very strong stereotypical views about who engineers are and described them as: white, male, middle-aged, good at maths and science who may be antisocial, and that they design and build stuff while getting dirty. The second study found that barriers to selection of engineering for women include the school system; lack of career and subject choice guidance available to students at school, lack of promotion of the profession, and society’s perception of engineers as being masculine. The third study found that young women were exposed to strong stereotypical thinking and behaviours throughout their lives that could potentially steer them away from a career in engineering. Other barriers included a lack of timely, accurate career advice, outdated school facilities and inauthentic enactment of curriculum. However, exposure to positive role models and strong support networks, along with developing self-efficacy, assisted them to overcome these barriers enabling them to explore engineering as a potential career pathway.
 Given the strong stereotypical views about engineering from future teachers, incorrect perceptions about engineering in society and lack of engineering career and subject choice guidance available to students at school, it is not surprising that there is a shortage of females entering engineering fields in New Zealand.

Left Ventricular Mass Following Detraining In Endurance Trained Individuals: Systematic Review And Meta-analysis

Exercise training has been shown to cause unique cardiac adaptations, such as increases in left ventricular (LV) mass. Detraining or cessation of training reportedly decreases LV mass, however this has not been systematically evaluated. Furthermore, the dose-response relationship between cardiac dimensions and detraining is unknown. Purpose: This investigation aimed to systematically review the literature and conduct a meta-analysis to assess the impact of detraining on LV mass in endurance trained individuals. Methods: A literature search of prospective detraining studies was conducted using electronic databases (eg. EMBASE & MEDLINE). Inclusion criteria comprised those who were adults, endurance trained, detrained for at least one week, and findings that reported changes in LV mass. In studies that assessed LV mass at multiple time points, we used final time points in the meta-analysis. The association between the changes in LV mass and detraining was calculated using a pooled statistic for random effects; statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Study quality was assessed by two reviewers using a modified version of the National Institute of Health (NIH) quality assessment tool. Results: Thirteen studies with a total of 189 participants (ages 18-55, 15% female) satisfied the inclusion criteria, each with various detraining programs lasting from 1.42-15 weeks. The meta-analysis revealed a significant decrease in LV mass following detraining (standardized mean difference = -0.710, 95%CI = -.874 - -0.546, p > 0.001). Changes in LV mass were not associated with length of the detraining period which appears to stabilize over detraining blocks longer than 2 weeks. Mean change in LV mass did not differ according to training level. Study quality was rated poor to fair, with inconsistent participant details and varying workloads during detraining (i.e., reduced frequency of training vs. no exercise). Conclusion: LV mass decreases as a result of detraining in healthy, endurance-trained individuals, and appears to be unaffected by length of the detraining period or training history /athlete status. Study findings are limited due to poor to fair study quality and lack of female participants. Further investigations are warranted to understand the impact of detraining on cardiac structure in healthy individuals.

Emerging Challenges in Technical Vocational Education and Training of Pakistan in the Context of CPEC

Pakistan is a country with rich natural and human resources. The role of highly skilled people in national development has become enormously vital in the new developmental period, but it is also an irrefutable fact that the gap in highly skilled personnel in Pakistan is expanding. The organization of Technical Vocational Education and Training was introduced to prepare a skilled workforce for various industries and sectors in Pakistan; however, the 60% level of young, unskilled, and semi-skilled labor emerging from informal and non-formal sectors is largely attributed to the failure of Technical Vocational Education and Training to supply the country with its requirements for trained manpower for the economy and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. China and Pakistan launched historic projects such as CPEC as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which fostered economic cooperation and development between the two countries. This article will go through the overview and the course of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Pakistan. The major purpose of this study is to highlight that TVET in general, and CPEC in particular, are suffering from a lack of qualified personnel because of a variety of other reasons, such as outdated equipment, a lack of industry connectivity, inadequate skills, unemployment, and so on. The study is descriptive and exploratory in nature, and it employs a qualitative research method. The perspectives of the TVET challenges in Pakistan were researched using the data obtained from 500 student and staff respondents, including teachers, TVET workers, and TVET job holders. Some of the important findings include the fact that the current state of the TVET institutions is no doubt due to infrastructural issues and a lack of funding. In addition, TVET in Pakistan is marked by inadequate skills, a lack of industry connectivity, unemployment, insufficient teacher training, and a lack of female participation. In this study, recommendations were given based on the research analysis and research findings.

Time-course recovery of cerebral blood velocity metrics post aerobic exercise: a systematic review.

Currently, the standard approach for restricting exercise prior to cerebrovascular data collection varies widely between 6 and 24 h. This universally employed practice is a conservative approach to safeguard physiological alterations that could potentially confound one's study design. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review was to amalgamate the existing literature examining the extent and duration of postexercise alterations in cerebrovascular function, measured via transcranial Doppler ultrasound. Furthermore, an exploratory aim was to scrutinize and discuss common biases/limitations in the previous studies to help guide future investigations. Search strategies were developed and imported into PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Medline databases. A total of 595 records were screened and 35 articles met the inclusion criteria in this review, which included assessments of basic cerebrovascular metrics (n = 35), dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA; n = 9), neurovascular coupling (NVC; n = 2); and/or cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR-CO2; n = 1) following acute bouts of aerobic exercise. Across all studies, it was found that NVC was impacted for 1 h, basic cerebrovascular parameters and CVR-CO2 parameters for 2 h, and dCA metrics for 6 h postexercise. Therefore, future studies can provide participants with these evidence-based time restrictions, regarding the minimum time to abstain from exercise prior to data collection. However, it should be noted that other physiological mechanisms could still be altered (e.g., metabolic, hormonal, and/or autonomic influences), despite cerebrovascular function returning to baseline levels. Thus, future investigations should seek to control as many physiological influences when using cerebrovascular assessments, immediately following these time restraints. The main limitations/biases were lack of female participants, cardiorespiratory fitness, and consideration for vessel diameter.

Sex Selection Bias in Schizophrenia Antipsychotic Trials—An Update Systematic Review

The lack of female participation in antipsychotic trials for schizophrenia poses an important issue regarding its applicability, with direct and real-life repercussions to clinical practice. Here, our aim is to systematically review the sampling sex bias among randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of second-generation antipsychotics—namely risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole—as an update to a previous 2005 review. We searched MEDLINE and the Cochrane database for studies published through 7 September 2020 that assessed adult samples of at least 50 subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or broad psychosis, in order to investigate the percentage of women recruited and associated factors. Our review included 148 RCTs, published from 1993 to 2020, encompassing 43,961 subjects. Overall, the mean proportion of women was 34%, but only 17 trials included 50% or more females. Younger samples, studies conducted in North America, pharmaceutical funding and presence of specific exclusion criteria for women (i.e., pregnancy, breast-feeding or lack of reliable contraceptive) were associated with a lower prevalence of women in the trials. Considering the possible different effects of antipsychotics in both sexes, and our lack of knowledge on the subject due to sampling bias, it is imperative to expand actions aimed at bridging this gap.

The contribution of gender segregated secondary education on the progression to engineering

ABSTRACT The lack of female participation in engineering education and careers is a barrier to equality and the various economic benefits of a diverse workforce. The causes of gender inequality in engineering should be determined in order to design and implement appropriate remedial measures. This research determines the rate of single-sex high school attendance across genders in student enrolments at the University of Canterbury, College of Engineering between 2005 and 2017 (n = 5992). A psychology cohort (n = 11,698) was used as a comparator. The weighted average rate of female, single-sex high school attendance in engineering was 56.0% of all female students in engineering. This is 4.3x larger than the national average rate of 11.3%. In contrast, the male engineering, and both genders in psychology had a single-sex high school attendance rate of ~35.0%. Notably, the engineering disciplines that had low female participation had the highest rates of single-sex high school attendance. Hence, either single-sex girls’ high schools are effectively encouraging female participation in engineering or co-educational schools are failing to effectively encourage female participation in engineering. This research shows strong bias in a key educational goal across educational strategies, and may enable location of the origin of gender inequality in engineering education.

No longer beeting around the bush: a review of potential sex differences with dietary nitrate supplementation 1.

Over the last decade there has been substantial interest in the health and athletic performance benefits associated with acute and chronic dietary nitrate (NO3-) supplementation. Dietary NO3-, commonly found in leafy green and root vegetables, undergoes sequential reduction to nitrite and nitric oxide (NO) via the enterosalivary circulation. Importantly, NO has been shown to elicit a number of biological effects ranging from blood pressure reduction to improved exercise economy and athletic performance. However, a common absence within biological research is the lack of female participants, which is often attributed to the added complexity of hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle. Despite mounting evidence supporting significant anthropometric, metabolic, and physiological differences between the sexes, this problem extends to the field of dietary NO3- supplementation where women are underrepresented as research participants. This review examines the existing dietary NO3- supplementation research with regards to dietary NO3- pharmacokinetics, resting blood pressure, exercise economy and performance, and mechanisms of action. It also provides evidence and rationale for potential sex differences in response to dietary NO3- supplementation and future directions for this field of research. Novelty Dietary NO3- supplementation has been shown to have positive impacts on health and athletic performance in generally male populations. However, women are underrepresented in dietary NO3- supplementation research. The present evidence suggests that sex differences exist in response to dietary NO3- supplementation and this review highlights avenues for future research.

Lifelong high‐altitude hypoxia induces arterial baroreflex adaptations: new insights and future directions

Lifelong high‐altitude hypoxia induces arterial baroreflex adaptations: new insights and future directions

The Nepali-Canadian Living Standards Survey: Newcomer Incorporation in the Greater Toronto Area

The Nepali-Canadian Living Standards Survey is collaborative research that assesses the economic and social incorporation of newly immigrated Nepalese into Canada. The study is based on survey interviews with sixty-two Nepali households in the Greater Toronto Area, conducted between November 2015 and April 2016. In this paper, we show that those who have immigrated from Nepal since 2012 are still struggling to find work commensurate with their expectations and their overall high human capital. The persistence of single income families, and a lack of female participation in the labour force, appear to be factors in this struggle. Those who have migrated earlier, however, report that they are more firmly anchored, both economically and socially, in the Canadian middle class, even though they continue to lag behind the native-born population. Both groups reported a high degree of investment in their children's education. The study suggests that policy makers find resources for retraining current immigrants who are attempting to secure better employment, including provisions for early childcare. Finally, Nepali-Canadian voluntary organizations are encouraged to pursue these same goals, both with levels of government and with each other.

The effects of corporate governance on environmental sustainability reporting: empirical evidence from South Asian countries

Comparatively less research has examined the effect of corporate governance (CG) elements on environmental sustainability reporting performance (ESRP) in South Asian (SA) countries. Further, no study in literature documents a cross-country examination of CG and ESRP in this region. The study takes three SA countries (Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan) and 88 listed organizations’ sustainability reports during the years 2009–2016 from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database. The study considers a variety of mixed theoretical frameworks—i.e., agency, resource dependency, stakeholder, legitimacy and political cost theories—to indicate which ownership (foreign, institutional, director and family) and board characteristics (independence, size, diversity and committee) affect ESRP practices in the world’s most environmentally vulnerable region. Our empirical results indicate ESRP has a positive association with foreign and institutional ownership, board independence, and board size. Moreover, we find director share ownership significantly relates with ESRP. In contrast, our results also reveal no association between ESRP and family ownership, female directorship, and CSR and environmental committees. We conclude that more family control, a lack of female participation, and the unavailability of resourceful management personnel primarily impedes ESRP practices in the SA countries’ organizations. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for academia, policy-makers, and corporate managers in this region.

Scholactivism: A Roundtable Interview with Ricardo Antunes, Pietro Basso, Patrick Bond, Michael Löwy, Jóse Paulo Netto, and Leo Panitch

Amni leads an interview on the conceptual distinction between scholarship and activism, the ideal form of relationship between scholars and activists, disciplinary and institutional constrains affecting this interaction, and the existing collaborative relationship between scholars and activists in each respective country. Although the interview includes scholars from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds, it must acknowledge some of its serious shortcomings such as the lack of female participants and also persons of color.

Do implicit female negative associations with mathematics display cultural or regional biases?

Word association tasks seek to measure implicit attitudes that participants may be unwilling or unable to express explicitly, by analyzing the timing of responses to a sequence of word matching tasks. An earlier study used a computer-based sequence of word associations to measure differences in response time for pair-word associations when categories within the pairings were realigned. They found that females implicitly demonstrated a more negative attitude toward mathematics, and identified it more as a male-gender domain than their male counterparts. Since females continue to be under-represented in high paying, math-intensive career, it is important for educators to be informed about research that may lead to improving the participation of women in the study of mathematics.This study seeks to identify patterns in implicit female attitudes about mathematics and math-gender identity, based on culture, background growth environment and current physical location. While results for the total sample are consistent with earlier studies, significant variations are observed in subgroups partitioned by culture and background growth environment. Identifying these types of patterns may elucidate paths to alter the persistent lack of female participation in math intensive careers.

Dialogue and Other ‘Men's Business’: Gender, Conflict and Multicultural Politics in the Diaspora

While the under-representation of women intergroup dialogue initiatives has been widely noted, there remains to date a lack of research investigating the possible reasons for this and its potential implications for dialogue practice. In this article, we explore a dialogue project held from 2009 to 2013 in Melbourne, which sought to bring into contact diaspora communities from situations of conflict in the homeland. Our project saw a similar lack of female participation, with a number of women suggesting that the dialogues were ‘politicking’ and therefore ‘men's business’. Reflecting on possible reasons for this perception, we suggest that the ways in which dialogue as a multicultural strategy is manifestly intertwined with certain presumptions of community should be read as influencing both the perceived ‘politicisation’ of such projects as well as the lack of female participation. The combination of identities highly politicised by ethno-national conflict with largely bureaucratically defined conceptions of community, we continue, should also be seen as contributing to the already-existing marginalisation of women in community politics and affairs.