Son Preference in Pakistan; A Myth or Reality.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze desire for sons/daughters among ladies of Peshawar, Pakistan, with a view to rule out son preference and to study impact of various demographic characteristics on the subject. METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar, from August 2015 - January 2016; sampling technique was random/probability/non-purposive. Self-designed questionnaire was utilized; carrying questions pertinent to desire for sons/daughters during marital life, and demographic details. Data analyzed via descriptive analysis (SPSS-21), expressed as frequencies/percentages and mean ± standard deviation(minimum/maximum). Sons and daughters desired (dependent variables) were cross-tabulated with independent variables. RESULTS: Response rate was 63.25% (n-506). Data revealed following: Sons desired 3.05±2.061(1/12); Daughters desired 1.15±0.767(0/4); 6.1%(n-31) and 0.6%(n-3) desired infinite number of sons and daughters respectively, 18.2%(n-92) did not desire to have even one daughter, while 2.2%(n-11) considered it immaterial to have daughters or sons. There was a significant relation between sons desired and client's education (p<0.001), husband's education (p<0.001) and socioeconomic class (p<0.001). There was no significant impact of religion (p-0.142) on desire for sons. Impact of independent variables on daughters desired was similar but less pronounced. CONCLUSION: There was candid son preference among the respondents. Gender discrimination can be attenuated by adequately addressing son preference at all tiers.

Strength of sexual and postmating prezygotic barriers varies between sympatric populations with different histories and species abundances.

The impact of different reproductive barriers on species or population isolation may vary in different stages of speciation depending on evolutionary forces acting within species and through species' interactions. Genetic incompatibilities between interacting species are expected to reinforce prezygotic barriers in sympatric populations and lead to cascade reinforcement between conspecific populations living within and outside the areas of sympatry. We tested these predictions and studied whether and how the strength and target of reinforcement between Drosophila montana and Drosophila flavomontana vary between sympatric populations with different histories and species abundances. All barriers between D. montana females and D. flavomontana males were nearly complete, while in the reciprocal cross strong postzygotic isolation was accompanied by prezygotic barriers whose strength varied according to population composition. Sexual isolation between D. flavomontana females and D. montana males was increased in long-established sympatric populations, where D. flavomontana is abundant, while postmating prezygotic (PMPZ) barriers were stronger in populations where this species is a new invader and still rare and where female discrimination against heterospecific males was lower. Strengthening of sexual and PMPZ barriers in this cross also induced cascade reinforcement of respective barriers between D. flavomontana populations, which is a classic signature of reinforcement process.

Nursing pay by gender distribution in the UK - does the Glass Escalator still exist?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND: Nursing is a predominantly female profession. This is reflected in the demographic of nursing around the world. Some authors have noted that despite being a gendered profession men are still advantaged in terms of pay and opportunity. The aim of this study was to examine if the so called glass escalator in which men are advantaged in female professionals still exists. DESIGN AND METHOD: Descriptive statistics of the routinely collected national workforce datasets from across the UK central repositories and mining of a bespoke data set that has been curated which focuses on the activity of specialist advanced practice clinical nurses. RESULTS: Even in a gendered occupation such as nursing the advantage of men in terms of pay is apparent with men being over-represented at senior Bands compared to their overall proportion in the UK nursing population. From the bespoke dataset there also seem to be an advantage in term of faster attainment of higher grades from the point of registration. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Reward and remuneration are essential to the workforce. This work reveals a gender differential towards men in higher paid nursing work. The drivers for this are complex and further work is required to determine the factors associated with career progression with men in nursing, and the rate limiting factors with the female workforce.