Separate Spheres Research Articles

More dads at home, more girls in maths‐intensive studies? Evidence from a parental leave reform

AbstractEvidence suggests that separate spheres gender norms discourage girls from maths. We therefore examine a policy that counteracts such norms among parents, and investigate whether it increases girls' participation in maths‐intensive studies. Specifically, we examine a parental leave reform that reserved one month of leave for fathers, and estimate its effect on children's study choices. We find that the reform increases the probability of doing a maths‐intensive programme in upper secondary education among girls whose father was otherwise reluctant to take leave. There is no effect on boys. We also conduct heterogeneity analyses to investigate whether the results can be explained by human capital transmission or the gender norms mechanism. The results of our analyses suggest that the gender norms mechanism is at play.

Separate Spheres: Increasing Resident Wellness with Protected Time.

Separate Spheres: Increasing Resident Wellness with Protected Time.

Surface-Grafted Single-Atomic Pt-Nx Complex with a Precisely Regulating Coordination Sphere for Efficient Electron Acceptor-Inducing Interfacial Electron Transfer.

Based on the electron-withdrawing effect of the Pt(bpy)Cl2 molecule, a simple post-modification amide reaction was firstly used to graft it onto the surface of NH2-MIL-125, which performed as a highly efficient electron acceptor that induced the conversion of the photoinduced charge migration pathway from internal BDC→TiOx migration to external BDC→PtNx migration, significantly improving the efficiency of photoinduced electron transfer and separation. Furthermore, precisely regulating over the first coordination sphere of Pt single atoms was achieved using further post-modification with additional bipyridine to investigate the effect of Pt-Nx coordination numbers on reaction activity. The as-synthesized NML-PtN2 exhibited superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of 7.608 mmol g-1 h-1, a remarkable improvement of 225 and 2.26 times compared to pristine NH2-MIL-125 and NML-PtN4, respectively. In addition, the superior apparent quantum yield of 4.01 % (390 nm) and turnover frequency of 190.3 h-1 (0.78 wt % Pt SA; 129 times compared to Pt nanoparticles/NML) revealed the high solar utilization efficiency and hydrogen evolution activity of the material. And macroscopic color changes caused by the transition of carrier migration paths was first observed. It holds profound significance for the design of MOF-Molecule catalysts with efficient charge carrier separation and precise regulation of single-atom coordination sphere.

Molecular-Induced Steric Shape Separation of Nano Geometries

The separation of specific-shaped nanoparticles from particle mixtures is important for the construction of particle domains with shape-specific characteristics. On the other hand, shape-based particle separation techniques have not received as much attention as size-based techniques. The shape separation effect of molecule-coated nanoparticles is primarily dependent on short-range steric interaction. The surfactant’s geometrical arrangement determines the position of the nanoparticle’s various crystallographic facets; this also determines how the various shapes are organized throughout the nanoparticle self-assembly process. In addition to smooth surfaces with a fixed droplet contact line and a stable environment, the self-assembled shape separation effect has been observed on surfaces with wettability stripe patterns and fluctuating environments where the droplet contact line behaves stick–slip-like during the evaporation process. The shape separation of spheres and rods is strongly influenced by steric interactions. Since shape-dependent transport properties exist in such nano-crystalline domains, it is important to understand the shape separation effect.

EXPLORING THE HISTORICAL LAYERS OF VICTORIAN SOCIETY & FASHION TRENDS: A LITERARY REVIEW

The Victorian era, spanning Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901, witnessed a complex interplay of societal norms, cultural trends, economic factors, and gender roles that profoundly influenced fashion. This era was characterized by a strict code of morality and respectability, leading to clothing that emphasized modesty and concealment, along with a distinctive class-based approach to attire. The fascination with Orientalism and the Arts and Crafts Movement left a distinct mark on fashion, introducing exotic elements and handmade details. Economic and technological factors, notably the Industrial Revolution, transformed the fabric market and influenced clothing availability and affordability. The proliferation of visual media disseminated fashion trends, while distinct men's and women's fashion reflected the "separate spheres" ideology. This exploration of Victorian fashion is not merely a retrospective analysis but an examination of how clothing serves as a mirror to society. The legacy of this era endures, influencing contemporary fashion and underscoring the enduring relationship between attire and culture. The study of Victorian fashion offers a deeper understanding of how societal values, cultural dynamics, economic forces, and gender constructs intertwine to shape the clothing choices of a bygone era, leaving a rich and resonant tapestry of historical and cultural significance.

The implications of economic freedom and gender ideologies on women's opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship

PurposeThis study explores the relationship between economic freedom and gender ideologies on the allocation of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries. Opportunity entrepreneurship is typically understood as one’s best option for work, whereas necessity entrepreneurship describes the choice as driven by no better option for work. Specifically, we examine how economic freedom (i.e. each country’s policies that facilitate voluntary exchange) and gender ideologies (i.e. each country’s propensity for gendered separate spheres) affect the distribution of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship across countries.Design/methodology/approachWe construct our sample by matching data from the following country-level sources: the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Adult Population Survey (APS), the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom Index (EFI), the European/World Value Survey’s Integrated Values Survey (IVS) gender equality index, and other covariates from the IVS, Varieties of Democracy (V-dem) World Bank (WB) databases. Our final sample consists of 729 observations from 109 countries between 2006 and 2018. Entrepreneurial activity motivations are measured by the ratio of the percentage of women’s opportunity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship to the percentage of female necessity-driven total nascent and early-stage entrepreneurship at the country level. Due to a first-order autoregressive process and heteroskedastic cross-sectional dependence in our panel, we estimate a fixed-effect regression with robust standard errors clustered by country.FindingsAfter controlling for multiple macro-level factors, we find two interesting findings. First, economic freedom positively affects the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship. We find that the size of government, sound money, and business and credit regulations play the most important role in shaping the distribution of contextual motivations over time and between countries. However, this effect appears to benefit efficiency and innovation economies more than factor economies in our sub-sample analysis. Second, gender ideologies of political equality positively affect the ratio of women’s opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship, and this effect is most pronounced for efficiency economies.Originality/valueThis study offers one critical contribution to the entrepreneurship literature by demonstrating how economic freedom and gender ideologies shape the distribution of contextual motivation for women’s entrepreneurship cross-culturally. We answer calls to better understand the variation within women’s entrepreneurship instead of comparing women’s and men’s entrepreneurial activity. As a result, our study sheds light on how structural aspects of societies shape the allocation of women’s entrepreneurial motivations through their institutional arrangements.

The Man at Noah’s Window—The Death of the Old King in Patrick Roth’s Novel Starlite Terrace

Starlite Terrace is a contemporary novel comprised of four interlinked stories about the American film milieu by the German-American writer Patrick Roth. Four protagonists tell their Hollywood-tinged, highly personal life stories to a fifth, who is also the main narrator. In each of their singular collisions with life, a universal and mythical pattern is gradually revealed that gives these so-called ordinary people a dignity they have long since lost in everyday life. Literary scholars are considering Starlite Terrace a brilliant portrayal of the so-called “seeker spirituality” found primarily on the West Coast of California. In fact, the novel is part of Patrick Roth’s own life story, a condensation of his 40 years of experience in Los Angeles, the center of the American film industry. The novel represents a new kind of literature, a new poetics that strives to give expression to an archetypal layer of the unconscious through the writing process, thus bringing together these separate spheres. The highly Jungian worldview is mirrored in the character of Rex, “The Man at Noah’s Window,” among others. In his fixation on the movies and movie stars, he represents an aspect of the narrator’s shadow, a content eventually recognized and accepted. Ultimately, Rex, the “eternal outsider,” embodies the old ailing king in desperate need of rejuvenation. On the level of the collective psyche, the figure of Rex conveys the end of the old God image and the beginning of a new one, as experienced and foretold in the narrator’s archetypal puer aeternus dream.

Sacraments of the Law: Discovering Common Ground of Law and Religion

Abstract This article proposes to identify ritualization—as the differentiation between the profane and the sacred—as the basic act underlying the creation of norms. In this light, we can perceive ritualization as a common ground of law and religion. This is particularly evident in ‘sacraments’, a specific type of ritual that culminates in the realization of the sacred within the profane. As ‘norm-facts’, sacraments draw the sacred into our everyday world. This connection has been evident since Roman times when ‘sacraments’ denoted performative signs of a juridico-religious nature. If one acknowledges that both religion and law draw not merely on essential ritual processes of generating normative meaning, but also use sacramental action to realize sacred norms within profane contexts, speaking of ‘law and religion’ reaches deeper than identifying the common topics of two separate spheres of the social. We have then in fact discovered an elemental and common foundation of law and religion.

An Integrated, Multi-Level Approach to Interpersonal Aggression and Family Violence

The study of interpersonal aggression has been carried out for the most part in separate spheres by experts from an array of academic disciplines. To advance a deeper understanding of these issues, however, requires a more conciliatory and interdisciplinary approach. The article offers just such an integrated approach, using a multi-level heuristic framework that has direct parallels with ecological modeling. In addition, the approach expands the analytic focus to reflect different aspects of complex human behavior, which include: 1) the behavioral investment framework, or the bio-psychological reality of the human animal; 2) the socialization framework, or the social psychological aspects of human learning and development; 3) the justification framework, or the language, knowledge, and meaning systems that one acquires to facilitate interpersonal communication and to justify one’s actions; 4) the social location framework, or the social interactional dynamics of interpersonal relationships that animate one’s daily life as a member of various groups and social networks; and 5) the societal context framework, or the broader institutional forms and sociocultural conditions within which individuals and groups are situated. The current approach bridges human neurophysiology and psychology with sociology in a developmental, ecological context that examines each dimension of human behavior. While the five dimensions can be separated analytically, in practice these overlap to exert multiple influences. Such a conciliatory framing permits a more comprehensive analysis of human social animals as situated within their natural environments. The paper outlines how each of the five levels contributes to expressions of interpersonal aggression by elaborating on key mechanisms that operate across the different levels of informational complexity. Several examples of empirical research are cited to illustrate the core principles that operate within and across the five complementary frameworks. Keywords: interpersonal aggression, violence, ecological model, integrated framework

Recovery and regeneration of water-hardened magnetic composite biochar sphere for the removal of multiple heavy metals in contaminated soils

Biochar has exceeded expectations for immobilizing heavy metals (HMs), but the potential ecological risks of its long-term burial in soil limit its practical application on a large scale. To address this challenge, a novel separable water-hardened magnetic composite biochar sphere (WMBCS) was prepared and applied to remediate agricultural soils contaminated with Cd, Pb, and As. The first application of WMBCS is simultaneously effective in removing Cd (3.2–12.7%), Pb (3.3–13.1%), and As (5.0–25.6%) from soil, and the removal rates are enhanced with increasing soil moisture, application dose and incubation time. WMBCS is more efficient for removing Cd and Pb in mildly contaminated alkaline soils than in heavily contaminated acidic soils. Compared with other regeneration methods, shaking and ultrasound-assisted EDTA-2Na efficiently elutes HMs with a dissolution efficiency of over 75% within 4 h, accompanied by the lowest rate of mass loss (7.6%) and Fe leaching (475.1 mg kg−1). After 5 rounds of successive cyclic remediation, WMBCS exhibits high adsorption efficiency (26.5–30.6% for Cd, 25.4–30.2% for Pb, and 30.2–41.0% for As), magnetic separation efficiency (98.8–99.8%) and regeneration efficiency (92.3–95.4%). The main mechanisms involved in the adsorption and regeneration of WMBCS include ion exchange and chelation. WMBCS is an economical and eco-friendly material with vast unexplored potential for use in agriculture.

The Catholic Church and Refugees in Slovenia

In Slovenia, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is the largest, most influential, richest, and most politically significant among all religious organisations. In estimating its contribution related to migration and the refugee situation it is necessary to consider the wider context of Slovenian society, primarily four characteristics: (1) despite the principle of separation of state and religious spheres, it is in relation to the Roman Catholic Church that the bulk of unresolved issues and occasional exacerbations occur; (2) while Slovenian public opinion is rather volatile in its expression of social distance to foreigners, it does not represent the main problem; (3) Slovenia’s state politics are very closed to refugees; and (4) political parties from the right wing of the political spectrum are rather xenophobic. While the Catholic Caritas plays a positive role in the care of refugees, the RCC has always supported the right-wing political parties when they come to power, and it is also susceptible to Islamophobia.

THE ETHICS OF CARE AS A FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF KANTIANISM, UTILITARIANISM AND LIBERALISM

In the paper, I discuss ethics of care as a feminist critique of Kantianism, utilitarianism and liberalism. The critique focuses on justice, rationality, individualism and the free market. The perspective taken by the proponents of the ethics of care is based on emotions, sensitivity and empathy. The ethics of care is based on the life experiences of women, while the ethics appealing to logic grows out of the experiences of men. The ethics of care focuses on relations, while traditional ethics refers to rules, norms and rights. It considers relations between family members or friends, based on care, as crucial for the whole society. From that point of view, the ethics of care criticizes liberalism which splits human life into two separate spheres – private and public.

Separate Housework Spheres

Separate Housework Spheres

Assessment of the level of IT-technologies development in the activities of agricultural enterprises

To a large extent, in the domestic branch of agriculture, the decline in the technological level of production, the slowdown of investment and innovation processes are caused by the insufficient level of information and technological support of their economic activities. The use of modern information technologies in comparison with traditional ones for agriculture has a significant advantage in terms of speed and quality of data transmission, improving the accumulation, analysis, and use of information. The purpose of the study is to assess the level of validity of decision-making by the management of agricultural enterprises in the sphere of IT-technologies of their economic activity. The level of informatization and computerization of separate spheres of activity of agricultural enterprises in Rostov region has been assessed. The existence of a direct relationship between the size of the enterprise and the level of its informatization has been substantiated. It was revealed that there is no connection between the list of spheres of economic activity, within which agricultural enterprises introduce information and computer technologies, and the spheres of economic activity, in which the management expects significant positive changes in case of development of the corresponding processes. The main problems of using Internet technologies in agricultural enterprises have been identified.

The Reception of the Copernican Universe by Representatives of 17th-Century Jewish Philosophy and Their Search for Harmony Between the Scientific and Religious Images of the World (David Gans and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo)

The reception of the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus in Jewish thought of the 17th-century period is a good exemplification of the issue concerning the formation of the relationship between natural science and theology, or more broadly: between science and religion. The fundamental question concerning this relationship, which we can ask from today’s perspective of this problem, is: How does it happen that claims of a scientific nature, which are initially considered from a religious point of view to be incompatible with the religious view of the world, are later accepted as possible to agree with this image of reality and are assimilated by a given religion? Based on the reception of the Copernican image of the universe by two representatives of Jewish philosophy in the 17th century—David Gans and Joseph Solomon Delmedigo—it is possible to trace this process and pose the thesis that it takes place according to two strategies. Within the framework of the first one, represented by Gans, in a situation of incompatibility between the scientific and religious images of nature, a scientific theory is sought that explains the observed phenomena and, on the other hand, satisfies the religious claims. Finding such a theory solves the problem of the incompatibility mentioned above of images of the world, gives the theory credibility from the religious point of view and constitutes an argument for its correctness. The second strategy, represented by Delmedigo, consists in refraining from pursuing a direct, immediate, and unequivocal reconciliation of the two images of the world while at the same time recognizing a properly justified scientific theory as correctly describing and explaining the phenomena occurring in nature. Consequently, the apparent incompatibility between the scientific and the religious worldview demands either a reformulation of religious statements in such a way as to remove this incompatibility or the restriction of the meaning of religious statements to the strictly religious and moral sphere, without the ambition to speak about nature. In either case, however, it is already a task for the representatives of the religion concerned who, when confronted with adequately justified scientific claims, to avoid exposing their religion to the accusation that its claims are unreasonable and anachronistic, undertake the task mentioned above of modifying or limiting the scope of their statements. It seems that in the representatives of Jewish thought and Judaism, who are the successors of Gans and Delmedigo, generally speaking, the second strategy has prevailed in this version, in which one abandons the claim of religion to statements about the material world at the price of a significant divergence of the paths of science and religion. Consequently, it treats them as different narratives, describing and explaining two separate spheres of reality.

Medicine as a profession in the writer’s self-determination: the example of A.P. Chekhov (1860-1904) and J. Rizal (1891-1896)

The attitude of A.P. Chekhov, physician and writer, and of his contemporary Filipino colleague J. Rizal was compared, in order to find out how their artistic creativity is linked to their profession as doctors. Both writers demonstrate a high appreciation for progress in their works. Chekhov emphasizes the importance of hygiene and education, while Rizal believes that education is crucial. In his works, Chekhov often depicts the consequences of ignorance, negligence towards one’s health, and lack of hygiene. In particular, in the story “Peasants” he describes how poverty leads to drunkenness, filth, and ignorance. However, he is not willing to directly connect social and political statements with his art. Additionally, after his voyage to Skhalin, he firmly refuses to pass judgement on his characters, even if they are portrayed as dirty and ignorant. Nonetheless, in his social activism he cares for the sick, especially victims of epidemies, and establishes rural schools. Rizal became an ophthalmologist to cure his mother, who went blind after unjustly being imprisoned; similarly, he became a writer to heal the “social cancer” of his country - ignorance. Yet, he encounters the problem that Spanish authorities prohibit education for the people. So, even up to his exile and death, he has to confront the dilemma of which should take precedence, education or liberation. Therefore, for Chekhov, being a doctor, addressing social issues, and writing are separate spheres, while Rizal became a writer primarily to heal his country’s society. Nevertheless, both writers, in their short lives, combined medicine, creativity, and progressive social activism, thus embodying what Yu.M. Lotman calls “lifebuilding”.

Features of hybrid identity of the second/third generation of european muslims

The article deals with the problem of the hybrid identity of the representatives of the second/third generation of European Muslims, which has become a consequence of the failure of various strategies for the integration of migrants into European society. Hybridity arises in situations of cultural intersection when somewhat contradictory meanings and logics emanating from separate spheres of action combine to form new patterns. The article shows that a significant part of the representatives of the second/third generation of European Muslims, to one degree or another, accepts the collective European socio-cultural context (primarily, the values of secondary socialization), but at the same time expresses time preferences determined by religion, which are little compatible with European values. This reveals important characteristics of the hybrid identity of European Muslims - ambivalence, multilayeredness and incompleteness. The study emphasises that the majority of representatives of the second/third generation of migrants do not identify themselves either through the nationality of their parents or through European identity, but recognise themselves through religious identity. Thus, religious affiliation is stronger than both identities. The main source of formation of the hybrid identity of second/third migrants is the conflict between religious self-identification and secular European identity. It is religion that is one of the restraining barriers to the integration of migrants into the secular European society. Similarly, the mobilization of religious identity underlies the formation of a hybrid identity of European Muslims of the second/third generations.

Creative economy: evolution of approaches to the formation of the concept

Methods. The research presented in the article was based on the application of such general scientific methods of scientific research as: logical and historical – when considering the evolution of views on the essence of the concept of «creative economy» and identifying the stages of its formation; general and specific – when identifying the characteristic features that distinguish the creative economy from other types of economic systems; analysis and synthesis – when forming a categorical series of related concepts. Results. The article traces the evolution of views on the essence of the concept of «creative economy». The historical path of distinguishing this concept from the understanding of the content of the actual sphere of creative activity of people and creative professions, cultural industries, the change of the concept to creative industries and the emergence of the term «creative cities» is demonstrated. These studies are summarized and assigned to the first, preparatory stage of the study. The second stage is singled out in view of the work on identifying the essential features of the creative economy, forming ideas about its structure and providing its first definition. Novelty. The historical process of the evolution of theoretical-methodological approaches to the categorical design of the concept of «creative economy» is shown, with the identification of two stages that reflect the gradual departure from the understanding of culture and creativity as a separate sphere of society’s functioning and the establishment of its perception as an important component of human economic activity. Practical value. The results of the research can be useful for scientists who conduct research on the essence of the creative economy and work on the formation of its categorical design.

Opacity and Transparency

Abstract I present the contours of an explanatory model of legitimacy that directs the focus away from normative questions and onto specific mechanisms of reality construction at play in constituting social orders. The key assumption informing the model is that stable orders rely fundamentally on their capacities to construct separate spheres of social reality, by which they exempt critical parts of reality from the burden of legitimation. I argue that an order's legitimacy ultimately depends on its ability to confine the question of legitimacy by relegating authorship of reality to opaque sources that are separated epistemically from the institutional order. The effective reification of critical zones of reality is shown to be a functional precondition for institutional stability. I show that capitalist democracy, in particular, depends on this mode of constructing ‘passive legitimacy’, which constitutes a key obstacle for any attempt to transform it towards an ecologically and socially sustainable formation.

A reflection on morality and religion

The aim of this contribution is to reflect on the relation between religion and morality. An overview of the different theories of the origin of morality is provided. According to Blanchard, there are four traditional ways in which the origin of morality can be explained: (1) origin from nature, (2) origin from ourselves, (3) origin from culture and (4) origin from an objective moral law. The last instance creates the possibility for religion to be identified as the origin of morality. In reflecting on the relation between religion and morality one realises that the question that needs to be discussed is whether religion is indeed the provider of morality or not. It is also necessary to determine if religion is the guarantor for morality. The aim of this contribution is to reflect on the relation between religion and morality. An overview of the different theories of the origin of morality is provided. In reflecting on the relation between religion and morality one realises that the question that needs to be discussed is whether religion is indeed the provider of morality or not. It is also necessary to determine if religion is the guarantor for morality. What happens in a secularised society? Is it still possible for morality to exist in a secularised society? It is clear from an understanding of secularisation as differentiation – the separation of spheres – religion and morality can be separated and can exist independently in a secularised society. The influence of the evolution theory by Charles Darwin led to a new way of understanding the nature of morality. Some reflection on the influence of evolution on morality is presented here. One prominent recommendation resulting from this investigation is to emphasise that religion can provide the morals for morality.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This contribution reflects the intersection of anthropology, philosophy, religion studies and ethics. The discussion is based on a philosophical reflection on the relation between religion and morality.