The “Supermen” Club: Organizational Secrecy and Masculine Identity in an Israeli National Security Organization

How does secrecy shape narratives of militarized hegemonic masculinity? This article assesses a gap at the intersection between theories of masculinities and organizational secrecy. Supported by 15 interviews with current and former male workers of a covert section of an Israeli national security organization, it argues that secrecy is experienced as both an external hurdle and a central component to the way that men internalize masculinity. Unable to access social capital outside the security organization, the respondents of the study construct a social field inside it through which they can assert their masculinity. They do so by conceptualizing their jobs, themselves, and the organization through a prism of sacrificial warriorhood, and actively incorporate secrecy’s constraints into a narrative of “super-men”. This study thus examines secrecy in the context of a militarized environment, showing the experience of masculinity and a perceived lack of power-access among members of a dominant group.

Physical Activity in the Workplace: Does Just Working Meet Activity Recommendations?

Background: The physical activity (PA) health paradox hypothesizes that occupational physical activity (OPA) and leisure time PA have differential cardiovascular health effects due to increased cardiovascular load without adequate recovery; however, research describing worker PA lacks high-quality objective OPA measurement. This study aimed to objectively describe PA profiles of men reporting high OPA and make comparisons to aerobic PA and OPA recommendations. Methods: Male food service, material moving, health care, or maintenance workers wore activity (ActiGraph® and activPAL®) and heart rate monitors for 7 days. Participants recorded work, non-work, and sleep times in a diary. PA was operationalized as time spent in sedentary behavior, upright time, light, moderate, vigorous, and moderate-to-vigorous PA during work and non-work hours. PA profiles were described and compared with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aerobic PA guidelines (≥21.4 minute/day) and OPA recommendations (<30 minute/hour upright and intensity of <30% heart rate reserve). Findings: Nineteen male workers (68% White, age = 46.6±7.9 years) were more active on workdays than non-workdays (sedentary: 492.3 vs. 629.7 minute/day; upright: 462.4 vs. 325.2 minute/day; moderate-to-vigorous PA: 72.4 vs. 41.5 minute/day, respectively; all p < .05). Most participants (17/19) achieved aerobic PA guidelines across all days with more achieving on workdays (19/19) than non-workdays (13/19). OPA often exceeded recommended limits with participants accumulating 39.6±12.2 minutes/work hour upright and 30.3±25.9% of working time >30% heart rate reserve. Conclusions/Application to Practice: Male workers reporting high OPA typically met aerobic PA guidelines but exceeded recommended OPA limits. The long-term health implications of such activity profiles should be investigated.

The Paradox of Automation: QWERTY and the Neuter Keyboard

With the neutering of the QWERTY keyboard in the early 1980s following largely successful clerical worker organizing, male workers in offices began taking on clerical work that, until recently, they would have considered beneath both their job descriptions and their manhood. Paradoxically, the men who now began typing, filing, and performing data entry for themselves did not generally consider the imposition of these new tasks an increase in work. Rather, they called it “automation.” Employers’ and computer manufacturers’ regendering of the QWERTY keyboard from feminine to neuter in the last quarter of the twentieth century was an example of the uses and power of the automation discourse, an ideological commitment that obscured the intensification of human labor behind utopian rhetoric and technological enthusiasm. Employers regendered the keyboard to get more work out of their employees, and as they did so, they claimed that no one did the work at all. Obscuring human labor behind technological marvels, the claims that the work was done by “automation” proved persuasive, even as human labor was sped up and intensified.

Dose–response relationships between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure and blood cell counts among coke oven workers: a sex-stratified analysis

ObjectivesTo explore sex differences and dose–response relationships between nine urinary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolites and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and complete blood counts among coke oven workers.Design and settingA cross-sectional study with stratified sex was conducted in Shanxi, China.ParticipantsA total of 458 male workers and 226 female workers were selected.Primary and secondary outcome measuresGeneral linear models, p values for trend tests and natural cubic spline models were used to explore the dose–response relationships between nine urinary PAH metabolites and NLR, PLR and complete blood counts.ResultCompared with male workers, female workers had lower exposure level of PAH (0.95 ng/mL vs 1.38 ng/mL). Only among female workers did we observe that a 1-unit increase in lg(1-OHPyr) was related to a 0.149 (95% CI: 0.055 to 0.242; p for trend=0.041) and 0.103 (95% CI: 0.025 to 0.181; p for trend=0.007) increase in lg(NLR) and lg(PLR), and a 0.116 (95% CI: −0.179 to –0.054; p for trend=0.007) decrease in lg(lymphocyte counts (LYMs)). A 1-unit increase in lg(2-OHNap) was related to a 0.045 (95% CI: 0.003 to 0.086; p for trend=0.037) increase in lg(PLR) and a 0.029 (95% CI: −0.056 to –0.002; p for trend=0.030) and 0.016 (95% CI: −0.029 to –0.003; p for trend=0.010) decrease in lg(white blood cell counts (WBCs)) and lg(haemoglobin (HGB)).ConclusionFemale workers’ NLR, PLR, WBCs, HGB and LYMs may be more susceptible than those of male workers when affected by PAH.

Effects of Alcohol Consumption and Smoking on the Onset of Hypertension in a Long-Term Longitudinal Study in a Male Workers’ Cohort

Aim: To determine the effects of alcohol consumption and smoking on the onset of hypertension in a long-term longitudinal study. Methods: 7511 non-hypertensive male workers were enrolled. This cohort study was performed over an 8-year period using the results of the annual workers-health screening. The end-point was defined as systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, or use of antihypertensive drugs. For alcohol consumption, weekly alcohol intake (g ethanol/week) was estimated (1 “gou” = 22 g ethanol). Annual survey data were analyzed by pooled logistic regression that included alcohol consumption, smoking, age, body mass index, job schedule types, habitual exercise, and blood test measurements into the statistical model. Results: A significant positive dose–response relationship between alcohol consumption and onset of hypertension was observed, with synergistic health effects present. Compared with abstainers and nonsmokers, the adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for the onset of hypertension were: 1.51 (1.27–1.79) for 154 g ethanol/week and nonsmokers, and 1.81 (1.54–2.11) for 154 g ethanol/week and smokers. An interaction between alcohol and smoking was confirmed. Conclusions: This study provided information useful to the prevention of hypertension. By reducing alcohol consumption and smoking simultaneously, the risk of hypertension may be considerably lowered.

Gender Inequality in Indonesia: Facts and Legal Analysis

the present time, the law is still considered discriminatory and not gender-just. Whereas the law should not regard gender to guarantee the fulfillment of women's rights. Women's rights are still not protected. Equality and elimination of discrimination against women are often the center of attention and a shared commitment to implement them. However, in social life, the achievement of equality of women's dignity still has not shown significant progress. So, if there is discrimination against women, it is a violation of women's rights. Women's rights violations occur because of many things, including the result of the legal system, where women become victims of the system. Many women's rights to work still have a lot of conflict about the role of women in the public sector. Today, discrimination against women is still very visible in the world of work. There are so many women who do not get the right to work. This research found that the structure of the company, rarely do we see women who get a place as a leader, in addition to the acceptance of female workers companies put many terms, such as looking attractive, not married, must stay in dormitory and so forth. Their salaries are sometimes different from male workers. Like male workers, women workers also have equal opportunities in the world of work. While there are many legislations governing the rights of women workers, it seems that many companies deliberately do not socialize it and even ignore the legislation just like that.

Incidence of Occupational Accidents and Contributing Factors among Male Workers in an Electrical Distribution Company in Istanbul, Turkey

Background: This study aimed to determine the incidence of occupational accidents among male workers in an electric power distribution company and to analyze the contributing factors. Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted on 158 male workers from an electricity distribution company in Istanbul (Turkey) between October 2014 and June 2015 in two phases. In the first phase, the data were collected with the face-to-face interviews based on a questionnaire related to the occupational accidents and working conditions in the past year. Then, each worker was followed-up for four months for the occupational accident incidence. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. The degree and magnitude of association between dependent and independent variables were determined by Phi (Φ) and Cramer's V coefficient. Results: The incidence rate of self-reported occupational accidents was 47.5% in the past year. The incidence was found to be higher for those aged over 41 (51.7%, p=0.02), work in lighting and overhead line units (71.0% and 47.2%, p=0.04), have occupational disease (66.7%, p=0.01), and have witnessed any occupational accident in the electricity sector (66.1%, p<0.001). The incidence rate was moderately associated with the working unit (Cramer’sV=0.25), witnessing any occupational accident (Φ=0.29), and occupational disease (Φ=0.21). It was higher for those with shift work (52.0%; p=0.29) and with job insecurity (51.8%, p=0.11). The incidence rate of occupational accidents based on four-month follow-up was 0.53 person-year. The most frequent type of accident was explosion (14.3%), and the majority of the accidents resulted in injuries (78.6%). Conclusion: The incidence of occupational accidents among male workers in the electricity distribution company was higher than the national average. The accidents were significantly related to the working conditions.