Healthy foods prepared at home: Diet and support as protective strategies during pregnancy for Hispanic women.

Birth outcomes tend to be better among Hispanics than among other ethnic groups, even when matched for poverty and education, and foreign-born Latinas compared to their US-born counterparts. These patterns suggest that sociocultural factors exhibited by recent immigrants have the potential to protect birth outcomes against the instability of minority and low socioeconomic status. To discover potential sociocultural factors, a pilot qualitative study was carried out in Tucson, Arizona, with 18 Hispanic mothers. The two most prevalent factors reported were (1) a healthy diet prepared at home from minimally processed ingredients, and (2) constant and comprehensive social support. When comparing responses related to diet by interview language preference, a proxy for acculturation, there was very little difference between participants who interviewed in Spanish and those who interviewed in English. This result may be explained by greater maternal social support and higher education levels among those who interviewed in English.

M-AAA-nsplaining: Gender bias in questions asked at the American Anthropological Association's Annual Meetings.

A large body of research has revealed the challenges that disproportionately affect women as they climb the academic ladder. One area that has received relatively little attention is women's experiences at academic conferences, which are often integral to academics' professional development. As conferences are attended by professional colleagues and influential players in specific fields, the professional consequences of any gender bias in criticism are likely to be amplified at such venues. Here, we explore the degree to which the likelihood of audience members asking a question and offering criticism is associated with the gender of a presenter. Audience questions were tabulated during the authors' visits to the three American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings. The results suggested that men were indeed marginally more likely to ask a question, both when considering all types of questions and when considering only critical questions. However, there was no evidence that they differentially targeted women for these questions. Future research might explore what motivates assertive and critical speech in men and women and how their experiences in receiving it might differ, particularly in academic settings in which critical speech might be considered more acceptable.