Latest news with #genderimbalance
The Independent
7 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
‘Imbalance' of women doctors harming NHS, retired surgeon says
A prominent retired surgeon, Dr Meirion Thomas, has claimed that too many women are pursuing medical degrees, which is detrimental to the NHS. Dr Thomas said that 'women have got to have children', and their subsequent part-time work arrangements negatively impact NHS services, including patient access to GPs. He suggested that medical schools should reduce the intake of female students from the current 60-70 per cent, which is a 'huge imbalance', to a 50-50 gender split. The comments were made amidst ongoing discussions about NHS strikes, with thousands of resident doctors set to walk out for five days. NHS England has urged the public to continue seeking care during the strikes, advising the use of 111 online for urgent but non-life-threatening issues. Patients struggling to get GP appointments because too many women are doctors, retired surgeon claims
News.com.au
01-07-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
‘Almost certainly points to human intervention': Migrant mothers giving birth to more boys than girls
Immigrant mothers from China and India are giving birth to more sons than daughters, new research has found, sparking concern among experts about sex-selective abortion in Australia. The study, conducted by Edith Cowan University researchers and published in the Global Public Health journal, 'almost certainly points to' women from countries where higher value is placed upon having a boy, terminating a girl after discovering the gender through blood tests in early pregnancy. 'Indian and Chinese mothers had much higher induced abortion rates in early pregnancy than their Australian counterparts, which coincided with the introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing,' the researchers wrote of their findings. 'This study provides the most compelling observational evidence to date of male-biased sex ratio at birth among overseas-born mothers, which appears to be attributed to prenatal sex determination followed by selective abortion of females.' The research was based on an analysis of 2.1 million births in NSW and Western Australia between 1994 and 2015. It found Australian-born mothers had children within the expected natural range of 105 boys for every 100 girls. For Chinese-born mothers, however, 133 boys were born for every 100 girls, and to Indian-born mothers, 132 boys for every 100 girls. There were 115 boys for every 100 girls born to British-born mothers. Chinese-born mothers were also nine per cent more likely than those from other migrant communities to stop having children once they'd had a son. 'It is crucial to examine how these practices may influence SRB (sex ratio at birth) trends, particularly in multicultural settings like Australia, where immigrants from countries with historically skewed SRB may maintain son preference and practice prenatal sex selection in their new countries of settlement,' the researchers said. 'Australia is a multicultural country with a sizeable immigrant population from Asia and other regions with a strong culture of son preference. It is plausible that such cultural preference combined with accessibility to NIPT (non-invasive prenatal testing) services may explain the unbalanced SRB.' Sex selection using IVF – apart from exemptions to avoid gender-specific diseases – is banned in Australia. As a result, the researchers said it was most likely migrant women who were aborting girls. Perinatal epidemiologist and lead researcher Amanuel Gebremedhin said that the 'markedly skewed sex ratio at birth among certain migrant communities almost certainly points to human intervention'. 'Oftentimes, parents are able to determine the gender of the baby as early as 10 weeks of gestation,' Dr Gebremedhin told The Australian. 'Given that abortion on request in many Australian jurisdictions is generally available up to 22-24 weeks of gestation, it allows parents time to consider whether they would maintain the pregnancy.' The Edith Cowan study is the latest to indicate an increase in male-biased SRB among Asian migrants in high-income Western countries like the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. In 2015, the SBS commissioned data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that showed an average of 108.2 boys were born for every 100 girls to Indian-born parents, and 109.5 boys were born for every 100 girls to China-born parents. Demographer Dr Christophe Guilmoto – who co-authored a 2012 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report on sex selection in Asia – said the figures suggested that the practice was occurring here. 'I think there is no other explanation,' Dr Guilmoto told the SBS at the time. 'Once we have run statistical test on this data and they should that the gap between the sex ratio at birth among these two communities and the rest of the population is not random, then we know there is something. 'There are very few ways to influence the sex of your child so the most common is to resort to sex-selective abortion.' Dr Gebremedhin said the findings demonstrate a need for a discussion about the 'consequences of male-based sex-selective practices', noting it could reinforce gender inequality and put pressure on women only to have sons. Studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations (UN) has similarly found that in parts of the world where male-biased sex-selection is a problem, the drivers are deeply entrenched social, economic, cultural and political factors that see women discriminated against in all facets of their lives. 'While maintaining rights of bodily autonomy, sex-selective abortion should be discouraged, as it undermines broader commitments to gender equality and non-discrimination,' Dr Gebremedhin said. The WHO and UN previously warned against imposing restrictions on access to abortion for sex-selective reasons because it was more likely to have harmful impacts on women and 'may put their health and lives in jeopardy'. Despite any skewing of the sex of babies born to Chinese or Indian migrants, The Demographics Group co-founder and director Simon Kuestenmacher said Australia's genders would likely stay in balance. 'This will not lead to an overly male Australia because 70 per cent of population growth comes from direct migration, and we still take in more women than men through skilled immigration, international students and backpackers,' Mr Kuestenmacher said.
Fast Company
11-06-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
How E.l.f. is using humor and hard data to push for boardroom diversity
BY Before launching a viral campaign that would jolt corporate boardrooms, E.l.f. Beauty faced a familiar problem: a lack of data—and an even bigger lack of direction on how to turn that data into action. To tackle both, the beauty brand enlisted help from Oberland, a New York-based creative agency. After sifting through more than 35,000 data points on board diversity, the Oberland team started asking a different kind of question—not just what the numbers said, but how to make them matter. They found inspiration in an infamous 2015 New York Times analysis known as the 'John study,' which revealed that more Fortune 500 CEOs were named John than were women. 'We said, 'What if we modernize this? What if we think about this in terms of boardrooms?'' recalled Kate Charles, Oberland's chief strategy officer, speaking at Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Summit in New York last week. The result was both irreverent and revealing: a campaign called ' So Many Dicks ' that exposed a striking imbalance—there are more men named Dick on corporate boards than there are entire underrepresented groups. 'We had to break the malaise,' Charles said. 'We wanted to do it in a way that had a shocking statistic like the 'John study,' but also carried a clear call to action.' 'And that's exactly what happened,' added Laurie Lam, E.l.f.'s chief brand officer. 'We had to do something sticky, something memorable, something disruptive—and it caught fire.' CEO Buy-In While the 'so many Dicks' campaign was what really 'caught fire,' it's not even the first piece of a larger initiative the company has dubbed 'Change the Board Game,' Lam told the audience during the panel discussion. The Oakland, California-based company recently celebrated 25 consecutive quarters of net sales growth, she said, which is why the campaign also connects how embracing diversity in a company and boardroom is the profitable thing to do. Lam credited E.l.f.'s CEO, Tarang Amin, with leading the cause by fundamentally understanding why it's so important to champion diversity and ensure it's not a 'check-the-box sort of thing,' but rather the ethos and core purpose a company is built upon. And, in that way, it's not difficult to achieve diversity if there's intentionality, she said. 'Every single day, we walk that talk,' Lam said. 'It's rooted in the culture of who we are—that diversity matters, that we are rooted in positivity, inclusivity, accessibility, that makes it easy.' Messaging Matters Of course, there's been pushback—both long-standing and more recently—to diversity-focused efforts, which Charles said is 'weird,' given the results. 'There's so much proof to show that when you have a diverse board, diverse leadership, diverse base, that you're all succeeding, you're more profitable, including Dicks,' she added. 'It's really good for everybody.' But the messaging also mattered. The campaign could have been called 'too many Dicks' or 'don't be a Dick,' Charles shared, and opting for 'so many Dicks' was very intentional, along with a subhead that reads: 'So few of everyone else.' The goal was to be inclusive. 'We wanted to make sure that men felt okay to stand up for this and that they didn't feel like they were being called out, that they were being called in,' Charles said. 'And we wanted other organizations to say, 'I want to be a part of that.'' Future of DEI For a duo who has put so much energy behind supporting diversity, it might come as a surprise that neither Lam nor Charles think the DEI acronym—short for diversity, equity, and inclusion—is necessary to advance efforts. 'I don't think it needs to be an acronym,' Lam told the audience. 'I think it just becomes a way of modeling a culture that is inclusive of everyone and it stops creating these sort-of lines in the sand of who it is.' Part of the problem, Charles added, is the acronym has been weaponized as a term that's 'attacking meritocracy' and it might be good to decouple the words from it. 'People, and certainly leaders and brands, do believe in diversity—they do believe in equity, and they do believe in inclusion.' And by showcasing the impact diversity can have on a company's performance, the more it can become a status quo—and something other companies want to emulate, the women said. 'We don't even have a DEI department, it doesn't exist at E.l.f. because it exists in every single employee,' Lam said. 'It is the job of every single employee to live the truth of the company.'
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Superjesus singer Sarah McLeod says the Australian music industry is still very much a 'blokes game'
Rocker Sarah McLeod has revealed that, when it comes to sexism in the Australian music industry, little has changed in decades. As frontwoman for The Superjesus, McLeod has enjoyed a 30 year career that has spawned four studio albums and three ARIA Awards. Speaking to he Daily Telegraph, McLeod, 52, who is also chair of advocacy group Women In Music, said that there had been little done to redress gender imbalances within the industry. 'Things have changed marginally but since I took on this role and I'm looking at the statistics, I see total imbalance everywhere,' she said. She said that statistics have shown that when it comes to festivals, female representation clocks in at around 'five percent or ten percent.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The Superjesus were certainly no strangers to the Aussie festival circuit, being regular fixtures on the liked of Livid, Homebake, and the Big Day Out. She admitted that while once thinking the band missed out on festival slots due to lack of talent, she has since changed her tune. 'I used to think we didn't get chosen for festivals, or another female-fronted band didn't get picked, because we weren't good enough,' she told the publication. 'But over the years I've realised that it is still very much a blokes' game, and we play it the best we can.' It was a similar sentiment that McLeod expressed when talking to The Music in 2023. 'It still is very much a male-dominated world, and I don't think it's changed as much as it should have, but at least we're aware of it now,' she said. 'The discussions are open, but it's still very much a male-dominated world.' She added that in the early days of The Superjesus she felt like just one of the guys, until choosing to embrace her femininity on stage. 'I used to think we didn't get chosen for festivals, or another female-fronted band didn't get picked, because we weren't good enough, But over the years, I've realised that it is still very much a blokes' game, and we play it the best we can,' she added. Pictured: The Superjesus in 2001 'I was very much a scrappy little tomboy for the first ten years of my career. And I just became one of the fellas, and I was cool with that, she said. 'But it wasn't until a good decade in, where I was like, "Wait a minute, I'm going to stretch my femininity here and embrace my power. 'I don't need to be one of you guys. I've got something else I could be, something better".' Sarah caused a stir, back in 2014, after she hit out at a touring festival, from which The Superjesus were dropped, for being too male-centric. In a post to Facebook at the time, McLeod claimed that The Superjesus and the Baby Animals, fronted by Suze DeMarchi had been culled from a Day On The Green tour to make way for iconic UK rocker Billy Idol. 'Guys, I'm sorry to say this and we do not know why this has happened but The Superjesus and the Baby Animals have been booted off A Day On The Green in favour of adding Billy Idol,' she wrote. 'So it's now Billy, Cheap Trick, The Angels and The Choirboys. They will refund your tickets if you are no longer interested in attending this sausage fest.' 'It still is very much a male-dominated world, and I don't think it's changed as much as it should have, but at least we're aware of it now,' she said. 'The discussions are open, but it's still very much a male-dominated world' In a response to The Music, A Day On The Green promoter Michael Newton said gender did not play a role in the decision. 'I did not even think about it being a gender issue. It's bullshit, to be honest,' he said. The Superjesus are currently riding high off the back of the release of their fourth studio album in March. The self-titled album debuted in the top ten of the ARIA Album chart upon release marking their first top ten berth since 2000's Jet Age. The single, Something Good, given the remix treatment by Paul Mac, is also currently sitting at number 15 on the ARIA Club Tracks chart. Hot on the heels of their latest success, The Superjesus are now embarking on a national tour.
The Independent
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
The decades-long policy Vietnam is scrapping to overhaul birth rate
Vietnam is removing its two-child limit to address a plummeting birth rate, which is among the lowest in Southeast Asia. The new regulation grants families greater freedom in deciding how many children to have. Vietnam's fertility rate has dropped from a stable 2.1 between 1999 and 2022 to 1.91 in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of decline. Experts attribute the declining birth rate to work stress, financial pressures, career ambitions, and shifting social norms, particularly in urban areas like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam also faces a gender imbalance due to a cultural preference for sons, with the health ministry reportedly proposing to triple fines to about $3,800 to curb foetal gender selection.
