Sex education and self-poisoning in Sri Lanka: an explorative analysis

Background Self-harm and suicide are important causes of morbidity and mortality in Sri Lanka, but our understanding of these behaviours is limited. Qualitative studies have implicated familial and societal expectations around sex and relationships. We conducted an explorative analysis using case-control data to investigate the association between sex education and self-poisoning in Sri Lanka. Methods Cases (N=298) were self-poisoning inpatients on a toxicology ward, Teaching Hospital Peradeniya. Controls (N=500) were sex and age frequency matched to cases and were outpatients/visitors to the same hospital. Participants were asked whether they had received sex education, and to rate the quality and usefulness of any sex education received. Logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, and religion quantified the association between receipt, quality and usefulness of sex education and self-poisoning. We tested whether the associations differed by sex. Results Roughly 1-in-3 cases and 1-in-5 controls reported having not received sex education. Individuals who did not receive sex education were nearly twice as likely to have self-poisoned than those who did (OR 1.68 (95% CI 1.11-2.55)). Those who reported the sex education they received as not useful were more likely to have self-poisoned compared to those who reported it useful (OR 1.95 (95% CI 1.04-3.65)). We found no evidence of an association between self-poisoning and the self-rated quality of sex education, or that associations differed by participant sex. Conclusion As sex education is potentially modifiable at the population-level, further research should aim to explore this association in more depth, using qualitative methods and validated measurement tools.

The Social Course of Fibromyalgia: Resisting Processes of Marginalisation

This sociological article reports an empirical study into the lived experience of fibromyalgia. It includes 28 participants (26 women, 2 men) with a formal diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Data collection consisted of the completion of an identity box project and subsequent interviews. Data analysis followed the principles of iterative, inductive, semantic thematic analysis, and led to the identification of four major themes: the role of the social in making sense of the experience, the process of redefining lifegoals, the refusal to accept fibromyalgia as a diagnosis, and the consideration of identifying as a patient. These themes in turn demonstrate four forms of resistance against processes of marginalisation amongst those who have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia: (1) the incorporation of societal expectations and norms into their life-stories; (2) the re-making the lifeworld at a cerebral level through redefining reality and creating a new, socially acceptable reality; (3) the active rejection of the fibromyalgia diagnosis; and (4) the employment of active and pro-active countermeasures to assuming the sick role.

The Impact of Psychological Factors on Women Entrepreneurial Inclination: Mediating Role of Self-Leadership

The worth of women’s entrepreneurship is accepted globally, but there is less focus on it in developing countries, and societal expectations mean women often lack the confidence to start their own business. The core purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of personality traits on women’s inclination toward entrepreneurship. The personality traits are measured through the dimensions of openness, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Further, the study introduced the mediator of self-leadership on personality traits and entrepreneurial intentions of women. The study is quantitative in nature and used a questionnaire survey to collect the data by convenience sampling technique. The data was collected in the context of Pakistan, and Smart PLS was chosen for further analysis. The findings revealed the significance of the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the study also highlighted the significance of self-leadership as a mediator and proposed significant relationships. The study suggested that personality issues should be considered and used from a business perspective, and self-leadership is important for women. The study provides room for policymakers and institutes to inform educational policies to motivate women entrepreneurs for the future.

Catch-22: Token Women Trying to Reconcile Impossible Contradictions between Organisational and Societal Expectations

Extending tokenism theory, and Kanter’s work on numerical representation within organisations, we emphasise the societal context of gender inequality in order to understand token women’s lived experiences at work. Based on analysis of 29 in-depth interviews in a multinational (MNC) situated in the distinctive socio-institutional setting of Saudi Arabia, the article expands Kanter’s typology of roles, to capture token assimilation in a context-embedded way. In particular, we explore the interaction of a seemingly Western MNC espousing liberal values, rules and norms with the enduring patriarchal and traditional context of Saudi Arabia. Further adding texture to Kanter’s theory, this study reveals that the organisational context cannot be seen as fundamentally neutral and inevitably interacts with the societal context, resulting in unique manifestations of tokenism.

AIDŌS did not prevent her: An intertextual approach to Komnene's depictions of women in positions of power

<p>Anna Komnene depicts several women in positions of power in the Alexiad, the earliest extant historiographical text written by a woman from the Byzantine period. The intertextual qualities of these depictions of women, however, have not received much attention and indeed the impact of the gender of the author on the text is a topic which skews much of the scholarship. This thesis aims to show that several signposted quotations of earlier source texts reveal an author in the act of contemplating the expectations of gendered behaviour for her narrative subjects, including her own authorial persona. The chapters in this thesis focus on the depictions of four women and the roles they play in the Alexiad: Anna Dalassene, Gaita of Salerno, Emma of Hauteville and Anna Komnene. First, the construction of one or more of these characters is broken down and the evidence in the text concerning the positions of power held by the woman is analysed. Second, an intertextual reading of a passage related to the characterisation of each woman is posed in order to discuss what is similar or different concerning the source text or texts and the target text. The rhetorical goals behind the depictions of the women are also considered, and their actions in relation to the societal expectations of appropriate gendered behaviour for women and men during the Byzantine Empire. The four case studies demonstrate that Komnene depicted these women using their power in the service of the family unit while showing due deference to their fathers, husbands or adult sons. Furthermore, the “double consciousness” of Komnene, as revealed in these depictions, shows her commitment to the contemplation of the power of women and the ways in which women could utilise their self-control to manipulate expectations of gendered behaviour and thus protect their family units, and therefore the means by which they came to hold power. The outcome of this research contributes to efforts to better understand representations of gender in the literature of the Byzantine empire, deepens the discussions of Komnene’s use of source texts and expands on the insights of earlier scholarship.</p>

AIDŌS did not prevent her: An intertextual approach to Komnene's depictions of women in positions of power

<p>Anna Komnene depicts several women in positions of power in the Alexiad, the earliest extant historiographical text written by a woman from the Byzantine period. The intertextual qualities of these depictions of women, however, have not received much attention and indeed the impact of the gender of the author on the text is a topic which skews much of the scholarship. This thesis aims to show that several signposted quotations of earlier source texts reveal an author in the act of contemplating the expectations of gendered behaviour for her narrative subjects, including her own authorial persona. The chapters in this thesis focus on the depictions of four women and the roles they play in the Alexiad: Anna Dalassene, Gaita of Salerno, Emma of Hauteville and Anna Komnene. First, the construction of one or more of these characters is broken down and the evidence in the text concerning the positions of power held by the woman is analysed. Second, an intertextual reading of a passage related to the characterisation of each woman is posed in order to discuss what is similar or different concerning the source text or texts and the target text. The rhetorical goals behind the depictions of the women are also considered, and their actions in relation to the societal expectations of appropriate gendered behaviour for women and men during the Byzantine Empire. The four case studies demonstrate that Komnene depicted these women using their power in the service of the family unit while showing due deference to their fathers, husbands or adult sons. Furthermore, the “double consciousness” of Komnene, as revealed in these depictions, shows her commitment to the contemplation of the power of women and the ways in which women could utilise their self-control to manipulate expectations of gendered behaviour and thus protect their family units, and therefore the means by which they came to hold power. The outcome of this research contributes to efforts to better understand representations of gender in the literature of the Byzantine empire, deepens the discussions of Komnene’s use of source texts and expands on the insights of earlier scholarship.</p>

A new green revolution or agribusiness as usual? Uncovering alignment issues and potential transition complications in agri-food system transitions

Agri-food system transitions are a considerable challenge requiring stakeholder alignment on what changes need to be made and how. When stakeholders do not agree on the goals or methods of a transition, this can be a serious obstacle to success. This paper analyzes 42 vision documents for the future of Dutch agriculture from a broad range of stakeholders to determine stakeholder alignment using an inductive coding approach. We identified 23 issues as the main challenges for the transition in these documents. We are the first to categorize them according to a recently proposed problem-solution space for wicked problems. Stakeholders were fully aligned in recognizing the problem for the majority of issues, but showed agreement on solutions for less than a quarter. For the issues of international orientation, sector size, and farm business models, we found a lack of consensus on the problem, indicating fundamental disagreement about the type of agricultural sector desired by stakeholders. The apparent consensus on environmental and social issues provides clear societal expectations for agronomic development and innovation, while the divergence on economic issues highlights the rift between growth-oriented paradigms and more holistic paradigms like agroecology. The crucial empirical novelty of this paper is that progress on environmental and social matters is restricted by divergent views on the economic characteristics of a future agri-food system, adding further complexity to mission-oriented transition and innovation policies.

Sustainable viticulture: how to evaluate and record it on a wine estate

Sustainable viticulture is being developed to meet the challenges of current societal expectations. Numerous assessment tools have emerged in recent years. The IDEA method (Indicateurs de Durabilité des Exploitations Agricoles or Farm Sustainability Indicators) is one of these assessment tools. Using the 4th version of IDEA (IDEA4), this article assesses the overall performance (level of sustainability) of a wine estate in Bordeaux in partnership with the company Ekylibre.

Lady-Husbands and Kamp Ladies: Pre-1970 Lesbian Life in Aotearoa/New Zealand

<p>This study explores pre-1970 lesbian life and lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand before the impact of women's and gay liberation and lesbian-feminism, using written sources and oral histories. The thesis argues that before 1970 most women could make lesbianism the organising principle of their lives only through the strategies of discretion and silence. Despite apparent censorship, many classical, religious, legal, medical and fictional discourses on lesbianism informed New Zealand opinion, as regulation of this material was one thing, but enforcement another, and most English language material was available here. These discourses functioned as cautionary tales, warning women of the consequences of disclosure, while at the same time alerting them to lesbian possibilities. Though lesbian sexual acts were not criminalised in New Zealand, lesbianism was contained, regulated and controlled through a variety of mechanisms including the fear of forced medical treatment, social exclusion and disgrace, as well as the loss of employment, housing and family relationships. Class and race affected these outcomes, and this study concludes that learning how to read a wide variety of lesbian lives is essential to furthering research into lesbian histories in New Zealand. The study examined pre-1970 published and unpublished writing suggesting lesbian experiences by selected New Zealand women, within a context informed by writing from contemporaries who have been identified as lesbian, and oral histories from pre-1970 self-identified lesbians.. Many of these women led secretive, often double lives, and of necessity deceived others through silence and omission, actual denial, or sham heterosexual marriages and engagements. The lies, secrecy and silence of self-censorship has often meant the deliberate destruction of written records such as letters or diaries, by women themselves, or later by family members and friends. The study concludes that the private lesbianism of most pre-1970 lesbian lives cannot be understood in isolation, and that scholars must move beyond the women's necessary masquerades to place their lives into a lesbian context in order to recognize and understand them. Each life informs an understanding of the others and by considering them together the study provides a picture of lesbianism in pre-1970 New Zealand, with the stories of the narrators illuminating the written experiences. Silences should not be mistaken for absences, or heterosexuality assumed for all pre-1970 New Zealand women. The stories of resistance and rebellion told by the self-identified lesbian narrators indicate that the women whose lesbian experiences are suggested by their writings similarly resisted societal expectations and prescriptions. Learning how to interpret and understand these materials is essential for moving beyond superficial and heterosexualised accounts of their lives. Towards the end of the period, influenced by other social changes, some lesbians in this study began to resist the need for caution and discretion, providing the basis for the liberation movements of the 1970s.</p>

Lady-Husbands and Kamp Ladies: Pre-1970 Lesbian Life in Aotearoa/New Zealand

<p>This study explores pre-1970 lesbian life and lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand before the impact of women's and gay liberation and lesbian-feminism, using written sources and oral histories. The thesis argues that before 1970 most women could make lesbianism the organising principle of their lives only through the strategies of discretion and silence. Despite apparent censorship, many classical, religious, legal, medical and fictional discourses on lesbianism informed New Zealand opinion, as regulation of this material was one thing, but enforcement another, and most English language material was available here. These discourses functioned as cautionary tales, warning women of the consequences of disclosure, while at the same time alerting them to lesbian possibilities. Though lesbian sexual acts were not criminalised in New Zealand, lesbianism was contained, regulated and controlled through a variety of mechanisms including the fear of forced medical treatment, social exclusion and disgrace, as well as the loss of employment, housing and family relationships. Class and race affected these outcomes, and this study concludes that learning how to read a wide variety of lesbian lives is essential to furthering research into lesbian histories in New Zealand. The study examined pre-1970 published and unpublished writing suggesting lesbian experiences by selected New Zealand women, within a context informed by writing from contemporaries who have been identified as lesbian, and oral histories from pre-1970 self-identified lesbians.. Many of these women led secretive, often double lives, and of necessity deceived others through silence and omission, actual denial, or sham heterosexual marriages and engagements. The lies, secrecy and silence of self-censorship has often meant the deliberate destruction of written records such as letters or diaries, by women themselves, or later by family members and friends. The study concludes that the private lesbianism of most pre-1970 lesbian lives cannot be understood in isolation, and that scholars must move beyond the women's necessary masquerades to place their lives into a lesbian context in order to recognize and understand them. Each life informs an understanding of the others and by considering them together the study provides a picture of lesbianism in pre-1970 New Zealand, with the stories of the narrators illuminating the written experiences. Silences should not be mistaken for absences, or heterosexuality assumed for all pre-1970 New Zealand women. The stories of resistance and rebellion told by the self-identified lesbian narrators indicate that the women whose lesbian experiences are suggested by their writings similarly resisted societal expectations and prescriptions. Learning how to interpret and understand these materials is essential for moving beyond superficial and heterosexualised accounts of their lives. Towards the end of the period, influenced by other social changes, some lesbians in this study began to resist the need for caution and discretion, providing the basis for the liberation movements of the 1970s.</p>