BACKGROUND

This study explores the professional functions and experiences of male midwives in the Province of Aurora, highlighting their roles, challenges, and contributions to maternal and child healthcare in a traditionally female-dominated profession.

This study aims to investigate the professional functions and lived experiences of male midwives in the Province of Aurora.

This research employed a qualitative ethnographic design using semi-structured interviews to collect data. Participants were six male midwives practicing in Aurora. Data collection was conducted via mobile phone interviews from August to September 2024. A purposive sampling technique was utilized to select participants. The study adhered to ethical guidelines, receiving approval from the University of Northern Philippines Ethics Review Committee Code: 2024-251, and informed consent was obtained from all participants. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Qualitative inductive content analysis as described by Padgett was utilized to allow for data-driven analysis without pre-defined themes, making it suitable for exploring the diverse experiences of male midwives.

Analysis revealed six key themes: Diverse professional functions, gender bias and stereotyping, patient reluctance and shyness, cultural influences, experiences of discrimination and prejudice, and daily challenges and rewards in practice. The findings underscore the commitment of male midwives to providing quality care despite societal and professional barriers. Under the Functions theme, male midwives described their roles as not only caregivers but also as advocates for gender inclusivity in midwifery. In terms of experiences, some reported feelings of isolation and the need to prove their competence in a field dominated by women. However, they also shared empowering stories of camaraderie with female colleagues and the satisfaction derived from breaking down gender barriers.

Male midwives play a vital role in maternal and newborn healthcare, navigating challenges such as gender bias and patient hesitancy. Strengthening administrative support, promoting inclusivity, and updating policies can enhance their professional integration. Advocacy efforts from professional organizations are necessary to address workplace challenges and recognize their contributions to healthcare.

PURPOSE: This study was performed to develope a scale of gender role identity in Korean adults based on the Bem's theory of androgyny. Although there were several tools in Korea, they were revealed having some problems of cultural differences, translation biases, and methodological problems. METHODS: A list of 78 items were developed using the existing tools and descriptions from 5 married couples. The items were the typical personality characteristics which were manifested by gender, male or female. And the list contained several items which were the socially desirable personality characteristics. which would be simply used as contextual items. Validity of the 78 items were screened by 18 expert panels with 4 point Likert scale, and 57 items were judged as highly valid from 70% of the experts, which were selected as preliminary items for the tool. Using the preliminary tool which was developed as a 4 point Likert scale, data were collected from 1,127 subjects for item analysis and factor analysis. 53 items were remained, because 4 items whose item-total correlation were lower than 0.2 were excluded by the result of item analysis. Factor analysis was done with the 53 items, and 49 items whose factor loadings were same and higher than 0.4 were remained. 3 factors were identified with eigen value 2.0, and these factors were named as masculinity, femininity, and social desirability. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: KGRII(Korean Gender Role Identity Inventory) which contained 45 items was developed, with 15 items for 3 factors. The reliability of the tool was very high. Cronbach alpha of the tool was 0.929, and alpha of the subscales were ranged from 0.841 to 0.922.
Adult ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Femininity ; Gender Identity* ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Masculinity ; Social Desirability

Glass ceiling is the unseen barrier that prohibits women and minorities in achieving a higher potential in the workplace. This barrier influences the well-being and prosperity of women and minorities resulting to career stagnation and inability to earn a higher income. Despite the abundance of literature on the issue, there is a dearth of comprehensive information that examines the organizational, cultural, and individual factors that contribute to the glass ceiling phenomenon in the healthcare industry. The main goal of this study is to do a full scoping review to find and map all the existing healthcare settings that contribute to the glass ceiling effect. A total of 28,184 hits resulted in the search of the published and grey literature. Nine articles passed the full-text review and were further reviewed. Data were synthesized and interpreted to determine the experiences of nurses about the glass ceiling phenomenon. Findings: Gender discrimination, bias, and stereotyping prevent nurses from learning executive summary skills, maintain the gender wage gap, and lead to unequal treatment of women and men in the health workforce; structural and systemic barriers within healthcare organizations can restrict their access to these higher-level positions; underrepresentation of women in leadership roles leads to lack of mentors; and lack of work-life balance due to limited flexible work arrangements.
Sexism ; Gender Equity ; Nurses

Unrecognized gender issues in TB prevention and management in the community and the resulting lack of mechanisms to address these poses as barrier in the success of TB control. Results from two projects on gender responsiveness in TB prevention and management in the community conducted in 2020-2023 contributed to the development of a checklist that can be used as guide to make TB control measures gender-responsive. The checklist used the basic elements of a public health program as framework. This was enhanced by measures to address gender issues which surfaced from KAPcommunity surveys on TB and Gender, in-depth interviews of TB program implementers, and FGDs with women and men who had lived with TB, including their families.
Public Health ; Sexism

Pelvic bone is the representative bone which has the quite different features discriminating the sex. And these features are well described in almost all gross anatomy textbooks. The parameters which are used to sex determination are relating to the those of obstetrics. To suggest the most significant parameters for sex discrimination with the bones, we have selected the frequently mentioned 21 metric fields of non-pathologic Korean pelvic bones, which sexes were already confirmed (M: 40, F : 19). Measuring theses metric measurements, the statistic procedure (descriptive statistics and discriminant analysis) were performed (SASPC version 6.11). The parameters showing more than 80% of discriminating probability are the acetabular length (Martin No. 22) and the pubic angle(Martin No. 16). The parameters showing more than 75% of discriminating probability are the transverse diameters of pelvic outlet (Martin No. 27), the breadth of greater sciatic notch, the ischiatic length (Martin No. 15a), the pelvic breadth (Martin No. 2), the obturator foramen long length (Martin No. 20), the obturator foramen short length (Martin No. 20) and the pelvic height (Martin No. 1).
Acetabulum ; Discriminant Analysis ; Obstetrics ; Pelvic Bones* ; Sexism*

The patterns of the moir'e fringe were investigated in 178 modern Korean skulls (112 males and 66 females) using moir'e contourography. The analysis of fringe patterns was executed using image analyzer on the photographs taken from anterior, both lateral, posterior and superior aspects. In the anterior aspect, the center of fringe was the glabella. The cotyledon shape of fringe (type I) was the most frequently observed in males (77%), but reverse triangular shape (type II) and rhomboid shape of fringe (type III) were more frequently observed in females. In the lateral aspect, the euryon, the center of fringe, was located at higher (4 mm) and more lateral (3 mm) position in females than in males. The contour patterns were more irregular (type I) in males than in females where the stripes were arranged more concentrically (type II, III). In the posterior and superior aspects, there was no difference between males and females in the shape of fringe patterns. The relative position of the opisthocranion, the center of fringe in the posterior aspect, was high by 35 mm to eye -ear plane on the average in both sexes. The stripes in the superior aspect were arranged concentrically in both sexes, but wider in females than in males. The results of this nonmetrical study suggest that the analysis of the moir'e fringe patterns in the Korean skulls is a new method for sex discrimination in the field of forensic anthopology.
Cotyledon ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Sexism ; Skull*

OBJECTIVES: To develop the Korean version of Disability Assessment for Dementia Scale(DAD-K), an instrument for functional disability for use with proxy-respondents of community-dwelling persons who have Alzheimer`s disease METHOD: Community-dwelling elderly and their caregivers with memory impairment(N=341) participated in this study to evaluate reliabilities and validities of DAD-K. RESULTS: The DAD-K demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency(Cronbach`s alpha=0.88) and excellent interrater(ICC=0.96) and test-retest(ICC=0.96) reliability and good concurrent validity. In addi- tion, it was found not to have age, education and gender bias. CONCLUSION: The DAD-K is valid and reliable instrument in Korean elderly with Alzheimer`s disease, that may help clinicians and caregivers of the population with Alzheimer`s disease make decisions regar- ding the choice of suitable interventions.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Dementia* ; Education ; Humans ; Memory ; Sexism

The metric parameters including Martin's (#41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 51, 52, 53) and non -Martin's parameters (nasion - occipital length, glabella -occipital length, nasion -inion length, glabella -lambda length, basion -nasion length, biauricular breadth, biasterion breadth, porion -bregma height, porion -vertex height, frontal arc, frontal chord, parietal arc, parietal chord, occipital arc, occipital chord, mastoid height, mastoid width, basion -prosthion length, internal palate length, internal palate breadth, external palate length, external palate breadth) were measured on 61 Korean skulls (M47, F14) with cephalometry (GPM Co., Swiss) and calipers (GPM Co., Swiss, Mitutoyo Co, Japan). Using the metric data of 35 parameteres, the statistic procedure (descriptive statistics, t -test, paired t -test, discrimination process, group analysis) was performed. Among those parameters, 28 parameters have the statistic significance in group analysis. The 2 clustering was most appropriate.
Cephalometry ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Group Processes ; Mastoid ; Palate ; Rabeprazole ; Sexism ; Skull*

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Septoplasty with turbinoplasty has the potential to affect voice because it alters the vocal tract. We conducted a study to evaluate the postoperative voice changes and aid using subjective and objective data regarding the effect of surgery. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: To rule out gender bias, only 23 male patients were enrolled. Voice change was analyzed by a subjective test through a questionnaire and an objective test through acoustic analysis. During each recording session, the subject uttered the words [^m ma: the Korean word for "mother"] and [Nu Na: the Korean word for "sister"]. We then analyzed the nasal consonant ([m] in [^m ma]), the nasalized vowel ([a] in [^m ma] and [a] in [Nu Na]), and the intensity of nasal sound. RESULTS: In the subjective study, 73.9% of patients reported an improvement in the quality of voice after surgery. Most of the patients reported a reduction in twang. In the objective study, there was a tendency for increased formant frequencies in the nasal consonant, and F1 of [m] in [^m ma] was increased significantly (p=0.003). There was also a tendency for decreased formant frequencies in the nasalized vowel, F2 of [a] in [^m ma] and F1 of [a] in [Nu Na] were decreased significantly (p<0.001), and there was an increase in the intensity of nasal sound, [^m ma] (p=0.009) and [Nu Na] (p=0.013). CONCLUSION: Nasal sound became clearer with reduced twang after surgery. It is important to keep the phonetic aspect in mind when patients are undergoing septoplasty with turbinoplasty.
Acoustics ; Humans ; Male ; Methods ; Nasal Cavity ; Nasal Obstruction ; Sexism ; Voice*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore public opinion on workplace bullying in the nursing field, by analyzing the keywords and topics of online news comments.METHODS: This was a text-mining study that collected, processed, and analyzed text data. A total of 89,951 comments on 650 online news articles, reported between January 1, 2013 and July 31, 2018, were collected via web crawling. The collected unstructured text data were preprocessed and keyword analysis and topic modeling were performed using R programming.RESULTS: The 10 most important keywords were “work” (37121.7), “hospital” (25286.0), “patients” (24600.8), “woman” (24015.6), “physician” (20840.6), “trouble” (18539.4), “time” (17896.3), “money” (16379.9), “new nurses” (14056.8), and “salary” (13084.1). The 22,572 preprocessed key words were categorized into four topics: “poor working environment”, “culture among women”, “unfair oppression”, and “society-level solutions”.CONCLUSION: Public interest in workplace bullying among nurses has continued to increase. The public agreed that negative work environment and nursing shortage could cause workplace bullying. They also considered nurse bullying as a problem that should be resolved at a societal level. It is necessary to conduct further research through gender discrimination perspectives on nurse workplace bullying and the social value of nursing work.
Bullying ; Data Mining ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Nursing ; Public Opinion ; Sexism