Search Results (18)

Financial literacy is not just an individual skill but a crucial enabler for sustainable development and gender equality, particularly in historically male-dominated sectors like mining. Despite progress in financial inclusion, women in Mpumalanga’s mining industry continue to face systemic barriers rooted in traditional gender norms, socio-cultural expectations, and a lack of workplace support, limiting their economic participation. Mining, especially in rural areas, often intensifies existing inequalities, making financial empowerment for women even more challenging. This study explores the efficacy of gender-sensitive financial literacy and capacity development programs tailored to women in Mpumalanga’s mining sector. Using in-depth interviews with 12 female employees, the study employed thematic analysis to identify patterns and extract meaning from the participants lived experiences. The research identifies key barriers, including the need for accommodation in the workplace, the impact of cultural norms, and the need for financial literacy. The theorising is made possible through a twin theoretical framework consisting of the capability approach and intersectional feminism, which results in greater understanding about how intersecting identities influence women’s financial empowerment. The evidence underscores the potential of focused, comprehensive financial literacy programs to empower women to overcome these barriers, facilitating individual and community development. In general, the study underlines the critical role of financial literacy in realising gender equality and sustainable development in the mining industry. The research calls for policies and programs to address systemic issues, advancing women’s economic empowerment and creating a more equitable sector. Full article

Television commercials (TVCs) play a critical role in shaping and reflecting societal understandings of gender roles. Guided by cultivation theory and framing theory, this study examines gender representation in Indian TVCs, focusing on the gender distribution of primary characters, voiceovers, settings (home, outdoor, workplace), and product categories. A quantitative content analysis of 120 Indian TVCs from 2011 to 2020 was conducted, with coding performed by the researcher. Findings show that men were primary characters in 54.6% of ads, while women featured in 45.4%. Male voiceovers dominated at 70.1%, compared to 29.9% for females. Women appeared in home settings in 66.7% of TVCs, while men were predominant in workplace contexts (100%). No significant gender disparity was observed in outdoor settings. Product-wise, women were mostly linked with household and healthcare items, whereas men dominated sectors like banking, technology, and transport. The study highlights how repetitive portrayals of certain gender framings in TVCs contribute to the normalization of traditional gender roles, offering insights into the symbolic structures that reinforce these norms in Indian media culture. Full article

Workplace harassment and transgressive behavior—including aggression, bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination—is a growing concern in society, including veterinary practice, worldwide. This study explores its prevalence in Dutch veterinary clinics serving different animal species, using an anonymous online survey conducted between December 2023 and January 2024. In total, 632 responses were included in the analyses. The respondents were grouped into veterinary support staff, i.e., nurses, technicians, and receptionists (54.1%), veterinarians (35.1%), practice managers (9.7%), and other (1.1%). The respondents mostly identified themselves as female (94.0%). The findings reveal that 69.6% of respondents experienced at least one form of transgressive behavior in 2023. Aggression was the most common (59.7%), followed by bullying (35.8%), discrimination (14.1%), and sexual harassment (5.9%). Younger professionals (aged ≤ 30) and veterinary support staff reported significantly more aggression and bullying than other groups (p < 0.005). Client-related incidents dominated aggression and bullying (p < 0.001), while colleagues and supervisors together accounted for most discrimination (p < 0.001). The results underscore an urgent need for interventions and cultural change in the veterinary sector. Full article

Concurrent cognitive tasks, such as avoiding visual, auditory, chemical, and electrical hazards, and concurrent motor tasks, such as load carriage, are prevalent in ergonomic settings. Trips are extremely common in the workplace, leading to fatal and non-fatal fall-related injuries. Intrinsic factors, such as attention, fatigue, and anticipation, as well as extrinsic factors, including tasks at hand, affect trip recovery responses. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the ankle joint kinematics in unexpected and expected trip responses during single-tasking (ST), dual-tasking (DT), and triple-tasking (TT), before and after a physically fatiguing protocol among young, healthy adults. Methods: Twenty volunteers’ (10 females, one left leg dominant, age 20.35 ± 1.04 years, height 174.83 ± 9.03 cm, mass 73.88 ± 15.55 kg) ankle joint kinematics were assessed using 3D motion capture system during unperturbed gait (NG), unexpected trip (UT), and expected trip (ET), during single-tasking (ST), cognitive dual-tasking (CDT), motor dual-tasking (MDT), and triple-tasking (TT), under both PRE and POST fatigue conditions. Results: Greater dorsiflexion angles were observed during UT compared to NG, MDT compared to ST, and TT compared to ST. Significantly greater plantar flexion angles were observed during ET compared to NG and during POST compared to PRE. Conclusions: Greater dorsiflexion angles during dual- and triple-tasking suggest that divided attention affects trip recovery. Greater plantar flexion angles following fatigue are likely an anticipatory mechanism due to altered muscle activity and increased postural control demands. Full article

Gender harassment is the most common variant of sexual harassment and is often seen in male-dominated workplaces. Importantly, persistent gender harassment produces pronounced impairment in psychological and occupational domains. The current study aimed to examine the degree to which male dominated academic degree programs are associated with higher rates of sexual harassment compared to female dominated programs. Four academic fields were chosen for their gender disparity—business, engineering, health sciences, and education. Consistent with hypotheses, cisgender women students in the college of engineering were most likely to experience gender harassment by peers and faculty. Implications and future directions are discussed. Full article

Startups are often praised for their innovative power and dynamic work environments, but are also criticized for workplace cultures that perpetuate traditional masculine norms of competitiveness, workaholism, emotional resilience, and strength. This exploratory study examines the prevalence of Masculinity Contest Culture (MCC) in German startups and related gender dynamics. The Masculinity Contest Culture scale, which assesses masculine norms related to emotional resilience, physical superiority, workaholism, and aggressive competitiveness, was employed to collect data from 101 participants representing various startups. The results indicate an overall low prevalence of MCC, with slightly higher scores for strong commitment to work. Individuals from disparate gender and hierarchical status groups exhibited comparable ratings of the intensity of toxic masculinity. While the presence of female founders and supervisors did not affect MCC scores, male dominance within the work environment had a small but significant amplifying effect. Significant differences were observed based on the prevailing leadership style, indicating that a shared leadership approach is associated with the creation of a more inclusive and less toxic work environment. The results challenge commonly held assumptions about tech startups. In addition, the study highlights the need for further research into the impact of leadership dynamics on startup culture. Full article

This study explores gender perceptions and equity challenges within the maritime cruise industry, focusing specifically on crew experiences aboard European Union-flagged vessels. The research aims to evaluate the extent to which gender diversity, equality, and inclusion are perceived, practiced, and institutionalized onboard. A structured Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) survey was administered to the crew members across various departments and ranks, investigating perceptions of discrimination, career advancement, workplace safety, and the implementation of gender-sensitive policies. Results indicate persistent gender disparities, particularly in areas such as promotion opportunities, emotional burden, and reporting of harassment. While overall attitudes toward diversity appeared positive, a significant proportion of female respondents reported experiencing bias, isolation, and unequal treatment despite possessing equivalent qualifications. Statistical analysis, including Chi-square tests and Exploratory Factor Analysis, identified three dominant perception dimensions: structural bias, emotional strain, and safety concerns. A notable gap emerged between institutional policies and actual behaviours or trust in enforcement mechanisms. The authors contribute to the field by designing a context-specific KAP instrument, applying robust statistical methodologies, and offering actionable recommendations to maritime organizations. These include enhancing reporting systems, improving mentorship opportunities, and institutionalizing training on unconscious bias. This study provides empirical evidence to support policy reforms and cultural shifts aimed at fostering gender-inclusive environments onboard maritime cruise vessels. Full article

Mentoring can positively influence the mentee, the mentor, and the organization in which both are employed. Mentoring can help employees to overcome workplace challenges, including barriers to advancement, while increasing job satisfaction, enhancing career development, and producing a greater sense of value within the organization, often leading to increased productivity. While mentoring clearly has a multitude of benefits, women have traditionally had difficulty establishing mentorships in the workplace, which appear especially problematic in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as corrections. Based on surveys and interviews with members of the Association of Women Executives in Corrections (AWEC), this study investigates the role of mentorship in women’s advancement within corrections departments. Data show that support, particularly from one’s supervisor, is critical as women consider advancement, regardless of the supervisor’s gender. These results imply that when there are few women in the administrative ranks, limiting the opportunity for female mentorship, women can find equally effective mentorship from male superiors. Moreover, mentorships do not necessarily have to be formalized to be effective and can develop from outside one’s department when none exist within. Corrections agencies interested in diversifying their administrative ranks should plan to establish more opportunities to foster mentoring relationships, which would benefit all employees. Full article

In the last five years, the female labor force has increased rapidly in Saudi Arabia. This is due to the new government’s vision to empower women. For many decades, Saudi females were excluded from working in certain fields due to cultural restrictions. Nowadays, Saudi women are not only joining the service workforce but are currently employed in more physically demanding careers, such as manufacturing and military jobs, which were previously dominated by males. It becomes necessary to design workplaces, tools, and equipment to safely accommodate the female physical attributes, which include body dimensions. This study presents the anthropometric measurements of Saudi Arabian adult females. In total, 504 female subjects aged 20–70 participated in the study. Thirty-eight body measurements, including weight and triceps skinfold, were taken in sitting and standing postures. The main contribution of this study is to provide a national anthropometric database of Saudi females, which is very limited, especially for females in the age groups under study. The availability of such data will allow foreign and local manufacturers to design usable and safe products and workspaces for a wide range of Saudi adult females. The findings reveal that there are no significant differences in the body dimensions of Saudi females across all age groups, except for stature height, eye height, chest depth, skinfold (mm), sitting height, buttock–knee length, and hip breadth. The study also reveals that Saudi females’ body sizes are different from other Asian, Middle Eastern, and British nations, which invalidates the assumption of using other nations’ body measurements to estimate Saudis’ body measurements. Utilizing the supermarket cashier workstation to assess the appropriateness of commercial station fit for Saudi females’ body dimensions, the results underscore the crucial role of anthropometric measurements in addressing differences between product design and the unique body dimensions of Saudi females. The identified anthropometric mismatch highlights potential risks, emphasizing the threat to the working safety of Saudi females. Moreover, the data can be used by health professionals as a base to evaluate the health of Saudi adult females. Descriptive statistics and extreme values are determined. The data are presented in standard anthropometric tables. Full article

This cross-sectional study examined the intergroup contact hypothesis in the workplace by enrolling 150 Italian employees. Within the framework of social dominance theory, the purpose of this study was to test the assumption that individuals with higher levels of social dominance orientation are more likely to exhibit prejudice against women in managerial positions and benefit more from intergroup contact with a female supervisor. In particular, we found that individuals with higher levels of social dominance orientation exhibited more negative attitudes towards women in manager positions, but this effect only appeared when their superiors were women, as opposed to men. In addition, participants with higher social dominance orientation experienced more positive outcomes from intergroup contact, resulting in less negative attitudes toward women managers, than those with lower social dominance orientation. Overall, these findings yield insights into how intergroup contact affects individuals with prejudice tendencies, indicating that contact with the targeted group (i.e., women in managerial positions) is negatively associated with negative attitudes towards the group, even when the prejudice is driven by social dominance orientation. These results could shed light on new routes to design practical intervention aimed at solving prejudice towards women in leadership roles. Full article

This study investigated the factors that cause job stress among male flight attendants in a female-dominated airline organization, as well as the impact of job stress on their mental health and turnover intention. It also attempted to determine whether perceived family support, perceived organizational support, and job positions had moderating effects on male flight attendants’ job stress. Six job stress factors were identified through focus group interviews and a literature review. A survey was conducted from 1 January to 2 February 2022 to validate the research model, and 188 valid samples were used for statistical analysis. This study discovered that gender differences in communication, relationship conflict with colleagues, hierarchical organizational culture, and role overload had a direct impact on male flight attendants’ job stress. Job stress was found to have a negative impact on mental health and a positive impact on turnover intention. Perceived organizational support was also found to reduce job stress. This study is notably the first to address stress encountered by male flight attendants at work. It offers new directions for future airline personnel management and research. It also presents practical implications, such as the development of training and personnel management programs for male flight attendants. Full article

Gloves are used at workplaces to protect hands and fingers from potential hazards. Three types of work gloves were assessed in terms of the strength of grip, carrying, and lifting. Thirty adults (14 males and 16 females) joined as human participants. The strength data were measured under bare hand and three gloved conditions. The grip spans in the grip strength measurements included 45 mm, 55 mm, 65 mm, and 75 mm. The carrying strength was measured for both dominant and non-dominant hands under leg straight and semi-squat postural conditions. The lifting strength was measured at a semi-squat posture. The results showed that glove (p < 0.0001), grip span (p = 0.001), gender (p < 0.0001), and handedness (p < 0.0001) all affected grip strength significantly. Wearing the gloves tested in this study led to a decrease of grip strength up to 22.9%, on average, depending on gender, grip span, and hand tested. Wearing the cotton gloves led to a decrease of one-handed carrying strength ranged from 3.5% to 9.7% for female participants. All the participants took advantages in carrying strength when wearing the cut-resistant gloves. The leg lifting strength data indicated that the effects of the gloves were insignificant. The information of this study is beneficial for practitioners in the design of manual materials handling tasks concerning the use of work gloves. Full article

Employees in female-dominated sectors are exposed to high workloads, emotional job demands, and role ambiguity, and often have insufficient resources to deal with these demands. This imbalance causes strain, threatening employees’ work ability. The aim of this study was to examine whether resource-providing leadership at the workplace level buffers against the negative repercussions of these job demands on work ability. Employees (N = 2383) from 290 work groups across three countries (Germany, Finland, and Sweden) in female-dominated sectors were asked to complete questionnaires in this study. Employees rated their immediate supervisor’s resource-providing leadership and also self-reported their work ability, role ambiguity, workload, and emotional demands. Multilevel modeling was performed to predict individual work ability with job demands as employee-level predictors, and leadership as a group-level predictor. Work ability was poor when employees reported high workloads, high role ambiguity, and high emotional demands. Resource-providing leadership at the group level had a positive impact on employees’ work ability. We observed a cross-level interaction between emotional demands and resource-providing leadership. We conclude that resource-providing leadership buffers against the repercussions of emotional demands for the work ability of employees in female-dominated sectors; however, it is not influential in dealing with workload or role ambiguity. Full article

At present, the logistics industry in Spain is one that is mostly male-dominated, and women middle and top managers make up less than 10% of the workforce at these management levels. There is therefore an obvious lack of parity in this sector. Spanish regulation at present supports and promotes gender parity in different sectors including the logistics industry. Our article uses as a basis the fifth Sustainable Development Goal, “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. Twenty-four female middle and top managers of the logistics sector were interviewed via a questionnaire of 52 questions. The research for this study was based on Avery and Bergsteiner’s 2011 Honeybee and Locust Sustainable Leadership Model and strived to determine how female middle and top managers in the logistics sector in Spain perceived leadership in their workplace and whether these perceptions were aligned with Avery and Bergsteiner’s sustainability leadership model. Findings showed interesting results, indicating that the Spanish logistics industry seemed to be a mixture of bee- and locust-type leadership. Respondents agreed that organizations were not very open to knowledge sharing and indicated that there is still a considerable need for improvement with regard to leadership practices in the logistics sector. Finally, our study is innovative in the sense that sustainable leadership and gender equality are two elements that have not been researched together. Full article

Background: Despite the rising proportion of female medical students and specialised female doctors in Switzerland, the field of cardiology remains one of the most male-dominated. Objectives: The goal of this study was to identify determinants of and obstacles to career development for cardiologists with special regard to an academic and interventional career. Methods: Under the direction of the Swiss working group Women in Cardiology (IG-WIC), an online survey was conducted among Swiss cardiologists and cardiologists in training. Results: 140 participants (43.6% female, 56.4% male; median age 45.0) were included. Women were more often single (27.9% vs. 10.1%, p = 0.013) and less likely to have children (52.5% vs. 70.9%, p = 0.034). If they had children, they were more likely to provide childcare themselves (37.5% vs. 10.7%, p = 0.006) or to have interrupted their work in favour of parenting (40.6% vs. 8.9%, p < 0.001). A majority of women indicated a negative impact of their gender on their career development (78.7%), and 36.3% reported sexual harassment at their workplace. Women felt less supported in their professional training, especially concerning research activities. As a hindrance for pursuit of a career in academic medicine, both sexes stated lack of compatibility of work and family (44.6%) and the competitive work environment (55.4%) being most important. Women also identified gender-specific disadvantages as one of the main reasons for not choosing an academic or interventional career. Conclusions: The overall satisfaction among Swiss cardiologists is high regarding training in health care and the working atmosphere. However, women and men plead for better compatibility of work and family and better structured training curricula. Several gender-specific aspects hindering women from advancing in cardiology training should be addressed. Full article