Women and Men Go to University: Mathematical Background and Gender Differences in Choice of Field in Higher Education

Gender segregation in higher education is well documented. Female students major in mathematics, technology, and sciences less often than men, and they concentrate in humanities and social sciences. Using multinomial logit on the 6,139 applicants to Tel Aviv University in Israel in 1994, I examined the claim that one of the roots of gender segregation in higher education lies in course-taking patterns in high school. The main findings are as follows: Women are underrepresented among the applicants to the mathematics-related fields of study; mathematical background in high school is particularly effective in narrowing the gender gap in applying to selective and attractive, but not mathematically related, fields of study at the university; women rely on high qualifications more than men when applying to selective and male-dominated fields of study. Several explanations of the findings will be discussed.     

Masculinity and madness

This paper explores the way madness is culturally represented in the West, and the impact of these ideas on the mental health system. The paper offers an alternative liberationist approach to gender, madness and psychotherapeutics. Strange, unexpected or apparently inexplicable behaviour and/or thoughts are usually considered to be abnormal. Invariably such behaviour and/or thoughts are labelled as madness ‐ psychological conditions deemed to be problematic. Common images associated with madness include emotional display, wildness, irrationality, sexuality, and passivity. In Western cultures these traits representing madness seem to be equated with aspects of femininity, thus inducing unsympathetic, condemnatory reactions within societies. Such responses tend to serve the social function of enforcing conformity within oppressive systems. Western cultures broadly polarise masculinity and femininity: masculinity tends to represent sanity. Yet this apparently positive status of masculinity leaves men with innumerable difficulties. The social conception of masculinity does not encompass many capacities that distinguish humanity, such as cognitive and behavioural flexibility, emotional awareness, empathy, compassion, co‐operation, exuberance, creativity, imaginativeness and sensitivity. Indeed, this cultural conception of madness impacts adversely on the operation of social institutions and is oppressive in different ways in the lives of both men and women.     

An exploratory study of the kinematics of girls with Turner Syndrome in a visuo‐motor task

In this paper a study is reported in which a group of children with Turner Syndrome (TS) is compared on motor performance tests and real‐time kinematic data with a control group. The objective of this study was to identify possible kinematic variables that characterize the movement patterns utilized by this group of children in achieving their optimal performance. The underlying idea is that by comparing test results and movement kinematics one might gain more insight into the movement production of children than by just looking at the test results or by just using clinical movement observation. The children performed a pen and paper task, the flower trail (one of the sub‐tests of the Movement ABC) (Henderson and Sugden, 1992), on an XY‐tablet. We explored kinematic variables, such as trajectory length, movement time, velocity and pen pressure. It was found that, although girls with TS have a severe motor deficit, they are able to draw a line accurately between two narrow boundaries just as well as the control children (no significant difference in mean number of spatial errors). However, quantitative analysis revealed that girls with TS made a large amount of deviations from the optimal path such that their trajectory length increased with more than 10% per flower trail compared to the control group children. They also made more pen lifts and more changes in velocity. The study showed that children from the two groups may reach the same basic accuracy performance level by using very different strategies. Kinematic registration of fine motor tasks holds promise in gaining more insight into how clinical groups cope with their specific motor problems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

股价和性别对模拟选股决策的影响

该模拟研究考察了股价和性别因素对股票新手选股决策的影响。股价为组内变量,分高低两个水平。被试是48名大学生,男女各半,均无股票操作经验。实验结果表明,股价对股票选择时间没有显著影响,但对被试体验到的冲突强度有明显影响,被试选择高价股时感受到的冲突强度显著高于选择低价股时感受到的冲突强度;在股票选择时间上存在显著的性别差异,女性选择时间明显长于男性的选择时间。     

Gender Studies in Post-Soviet Society: Western Frames and Cultural Differences

This article is devoted to theexploration of some trends in gender studies incontemporary Russia and is based on ourresearch and teaching in the field over thecourse of seven years. The main concepts ofgender research – gender, feminism,women's subjectivity – were introduced to theRussian public early in 1990s; Russian genderstudies began to develop as a whole due to theapplication of Western concepts and theories.The article examines the growth of genderstudies over the last 10 years, contextualdifferences as well as theoretical approachesin Russian gender studies as these have arisenin the context of the `Russia – West'dichotomy.     

Mediating and moderating processes in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants in emerging adults

Few studies examine intercultural relations in emerging adulthood. Framed from the perspective of the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) project, the current paper examined the mediating role of tolerance and perceived consequences of immigration in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants. Additionally, the moderating role of context was analysed. A two‐group structural equation modelling was performed on data collected from 305 Italian emerging adults living both in northern and in southern Italy with different socio‐political climates towards immigrants. In both groups, tolerance and perceived consequences of immigration mediated the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants. Also, this indirect relationship was significantly higher for the northern than southern Italians. These findings provide provisional evidence of mediating and moderating processes in the relationship between multicultural ideology and attitudes towards immigrants and suggest important implications for practitioners interested in promoting intercultural relations among emerging adults.     

Dreaming woman: Image,place, and the aesthetics of exile

Looking closely at an Argentine dream interpretation column published in a popular women's magazine from 1948 to 1951, this article examines the role of the dream image in shaping psychoanalytic discourse on femininity and national identity. The column, ‘Psychoanalysis Will Help You,’ emerged during Juan Domingo Perón's first presidency, featuring verbal interpretations written under the pen name ‘Richard Rest,’ as well as surreal photomontages by Grete Stern, a German‐born, Bauhaus‐trained photographer living in exile since 1936. While the column's Jungian text encourages readers’ adaptation to the external reality of their social situation, Stern's droll images emphasize the disjuncture between subject and environment, exposing tensions between the experience of exile and the Peronist mission to consolidate an Argentine national identity. Experimenting formally with European avant‐garde techniques, Stern presents femininity and nation as conflictive imaginary configurations. This theme resurfaces at the 2013 Venice Biennale, where Nicola Costantino's multimedia installation Eva – Argentina: A Contemporary Metaphor was exhibited alongside Carl Jung's Red Book. Formal contrasts between Stern's use of photomontage, Costantino's projection technique, and Jung's theory of mandala symbolism indicate the divergent ways in which their artwork posits the therapeutic function of the dream image, as well as the role of aesthetic production in psychoanalytic care.     

Halloween Costume Choices: Reflections of Gender Development in Early Childhood

The author examined whether preschoolers’ Halloween costume choices reflect their gender development. The sample consisted of 110 (53 boys, 57 girls) infant through preschool-aged participants, and 1 parent of each child. Both observational methodologies and parent-report surveys were used to assess the gender-typed nature of children's Halloween costumes, information about the Halloween costume choice process, and about the children's gender development. Boys’ costumes were more masculine and girls’ costumes were more feminine. Younger children's costumes were consistently less gender typed than the older children's costumes were. Children whose parents chose their Halloween costumes for them had Halloween costumes that were less gender typed than did children who were involved in the Halloween costume decision-making process. Moreover, children's gender-typed play and desire to wear gender-stereotyped clothes were related to the gender stereotyped nature of their Halloween costume. Unexpectedly, gender typicality, a dimension of gender identity, was not related to children's Halloween costume choices. Overall, the findings support that children's Halloween costume choice is an indicator of children's gender development processes.     

REEXAMINING SCHREBER THROUGH THE LENS OF A PRESENT‐DAY CASE: FANTASIES OF DEATH,REBIRTH, AND GENDER TRANSFORMATION

In the history of psychoanalysis, the Schreber case has long been a source of controversy. Speculations about Schreber have abounded essentially because none of the speculators, including Freud ( 1911 ), has been constrained by the reality of interactive dynamics with Schreber on the couch. This author contends, however, that knowing someone analytically must involve the transference experience. He presents the case of Z, a middle‐aged patient of his who described a fantasy that was uncannily similar to Schreber's, permitting a present‐day reexamination of the original case, as well as ongoing speculations that include the way in which live clinical material can interact with the reading of a historical document.