An analysis of Italian university students’ performance through segmented regression models: gender differences in STEM courses

This paper investigates gender differences in university performances in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses in Italy, proposing a novel application through the segmented regression models. The analysis concerns freshmen students enrolled at a 3-year STEM degree in Italian universities in the last decade, with a focus on the relationship between the number of university credits earned during the first year (a good predictor of the regularity of the career) and the probability of getting the bachelor degree within 4 years. Data is provided by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR). Our analysis confirms that first-year performance is strongly correlated to obtaining a degree within 4 years. Furthermore, our findings show that gender differences vary among STEM courses, in accordance with the care-oriented and technical-oriented dichotomy. Males outperform females in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science, while females are slightly better than males in biology. In engineering, female performance seems to follow the male stream. Finally, accounting for other important covariates regarding students, we point out the importance of high school background and students’ demographic characteristics.

Behavioral discrimination and time-series phenotyping of birdsong performance

Variation in the acoustic structure of vocal signals is important to communicate social information. However, relatively little is known about the features that receivers extract to decipher relevant social information. Here, we took an expansive, bottom-up approach to delineate the feature space that could be important for processing social information in zebra finch song. Using operant techniques, we discovered that female zebra finches can consistently discriminate brief song phrases (“motifs”) from different social contexts. We then applied machine learning algorithms to classify motifs based on thousands of time-series features and to uncover acoustic features for motif discrimination. In addition to highlighting classic acoustic features, the resulting algorithm revealed novel features for song discrimination, for example, measures of time irreversibility (i.e., the degree to which the statistical properties of the actual and time-reversed signal differ). Moreover, the algorithm accurately predicted female performance on individual motif exemplars. These data underscore and expand the promise of broad time-series phenotyping to acoustic analyses and social decision-making.

Equal Performance, Different Grade: Women’s Performance in Discussion Perceived Worse Than Men’s

We investigate how men and women are evaluated in group discussions. In five studies ( N = 761) using a variant of a Hidden Profile Task, we find that, when experimentally and/or statistically controlling for actual gender differences in behavior, the female performance in a group discussion is devalued in comparison to male performance. This was observed for fellow group members (Study 1) and outside observers (Studies 2–5), in both primarily student (Studies 1, 4, and 5) and mixed samples (Studies 2 and 3), for different measures of performance (perceived helpfulness of the contribution, for work-related competence), across different discussion formats (preformulated chat messages, open chat), and when controlling for the number of female group members (Study 5). In contrast to our hypothesis, we did not find a moderating effect of selection procedure in that women were devalued to a similar degree in both situations with a women’s quota and without.

“They Don't Play in Service”: Analysis of Female Work in the Context of Red Ceramic Production

The production of red ceramics (tiles and bricks) was an important activity for the economic development of the municipality of Morro da Fumaça, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil from the 1960s onwards. This segment was a major contributor to the introduction of labor female labor in the local economy. The activity still has great economic relevance for the municipality, since it is a source of tax collection and generation of direct and indirect jobs, for a representative portion of the population. This study aims to narrate the way in which the production and development of red ceramic production took place in the municipality of Morro da Fumaça, south of Santa Catarina, Brazil, confronting it with the social reality of the actors that make up the productive force sector, especially female workers. From the female performance, analyze the working conditions to which they were submitted. Such conditions, at times, imposed a double working day in the activity of ceramic production, work in a family nucleus with the inclusion of minor workers, in addition to the responsibilities with domestic chores.

It’s Not That You Said It, It’s How You Said It: Exploring the Linguistic Mechanisms Underlying Values Affirmation Interventions at Scale

Over the last decade, psychological interventions, such as the values affirmation intervention, have been shown to alleviate the male-female performance difference when delivered in the classroom, however, attempts to scale the intervention are less successful. This study provides unique evidence on this issue by reporting the observed differences between two randomized controlled implementations of the values affirmation intervention: (a) successful in-class and (b) unsuccessful online implementation at scale. Specifically, we use natural language processing to explore the discourse features that characterize successful female students’ values affirmation essays to gain insight on the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the beneficial effects of the intervention. Our results revealed that linguistic dimensions related to aspects of cohesion, affective, cognitive, temporal, and social orientation, independently distinguished between males and females, as well as more and less effective essays. We discuss implications for the pipeline from theory to practice and for psychological interventions.

Ả Đào Singers

This chapter is a study of the sale of sex in ả Đào singing houses, a form of female performance art dating back to the fourteenth century. In its twentieth-century iteration, sex work in ả Đào singing houses appealed to those with a taste for traditional culture in an era of dynamic cultural change. The success of clandestine sex work in ả Đào venues lay in the ability of sex workers and their managers to capitalize on both the sensuality inherent to this genre of female performance art and the legitimacy associated with a revered traditional art form. The result was that ả Đào venues operated as ambiguous spaces that blurred the traditional lines separating art, sex, and commerce.

The Legacy of the Mountain Witch: Yasuko Yokoshi's shuffleyamamba

The contemporary dance production shuffleyamamba by Japan-based dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Yasuko Yokoshi takes inspiration from the medieval noh play Yamamba (Mountain Crone). Drawing from the female-centered focus of the play and the complexity of the yamamba image, Yokoshi, in collaboration with American sound artist Gelsey Bell, weaves together a multifaceted work that celebrates the enduring legacies of dance and female performance.

Introduction to “Reproduction: The Female Perspective from an Integrative and Comparative Framework”

Synopsis This compendium is from a symposium about reproductive biology from the female perspective, but what do we mean by the female perspective? Most obviously, since all of our speakers, and most of our contributors, are female, one meaning is that the female perspective is the view of female scientists. Our diverse contributors are from a spectrum of academic ranks (post-docs to chaired professors) and study a range of animal taxa from insects to mammals. More importantly, we want to examine reproductive biology from the perspective of female organisms themselves. What happens when we examine social behavior, physiology, or ecology strictly from the viewpoint of females? In many cases, the female-centric perspective will alter our prior interpretations. For example, with deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprinting, differences between genetic and behavioral mating-systems became obvious. The scientific community came to realize that assessing parentage is the definitive way to categorize mating systems since using male-mating strategies resulted in flawed conclusions; in fact, the female selection of which sperm is involved in conception is more important in determining parentage than mating events per se. Perhaps parentage systems rather than mating systems would be more appropriate. This difference in interpretation relative to methodology exemplifies how behavioral ecology might change if we examine systems from the female perspective; similar changes may occur for other fields. Another example comes from studies of whole-organism performance. Here, jumping, running, and swimming have been measured in males, usually with the deliberate removal of females and the major facet of female physiology, that is, reproduction. However, female biology may actually set the limits of performance given the need to carry extra weight and the extensive changes in body shape required for reproduction. Female performance is a valuable area for research. In fact, novel insights into metabolic ceilings arose from examining energetics, including metabolic rates, during lactation. In the symposium and the associated papers, our contributors explored the various ways in which a female-focused framework shifts our research conclusions and programs. As a way forward, we also include a table of sex-neutral terminology to replace terms that are currently androcentric or value-laden.

REPRESENTAÇÕES DO COMPORTAMENTO FEMININO EM BELO HORIZONTE (1920-1930) * REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE BEHAVIOUR IN BELO HORIZONTE (1920-1930)

Os impressos contribuíram para a difusão de representações, de diferenciações e de classificações sociais do comportamento feminino. Durante as décadas de 1920 e 1930 em Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, os jornais publicaram diversos textos dispersos dirigidos às mulheres e aos seus comportamentos que são uma importante série documental para a análise das distinções a partir da interseccionalidade do gênero com as dimensões raciais e sexuais (morais). Essas representações produziram e foram produzidas pela dicotomia entre “mulher honesta” e “mulher decaída”. Argumento que essa situação é parte de um amplo processo de construção de diferentes mecanismos de normatização dos comportamentos femininos que se relacionam com as distinções sociais e de gênero que marcaram a sociedade brasileira.*The press contributed to the production and dissemination of social representation, differentiation and classifications of female behaviour. The 1920’s and 1930’s newspapers in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, have published several dispersed texts addressed to women and their behaviour. They form an important series of documents to the analysis of social distinctions from intersectionality of gender with the racial, social and sexual (moral) dimensions. These representations forged and have been shaped by the dichotomy between the “honest woman” and the “fallen woman”. I argue that this situation is part of a large process of production of different arrangements of standardisation of female performance that are related with the social and gender distinctions of the Brazilian society.