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This paper aims to provide a gendered analysis of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) benchmarked upon the global commitments to women’s health and well-being in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It reviews evidence of the global consequences of neglecting women’s tobacco use and health, as well as analyzes persistent issues related to sex and gender that compromise the efficacy of tobacco control and science. Actionable recommendations are made to the Conference of the Parties to the FCTC and other key stakeholders.

This paper draws upon empirical studies, literature reviews and global health data at the varying intersections of gender, sex, tobacco and global health.

The global tobacco control framework and its implementation by state governments have been largely gender blind to date with dire health and economic consequences, including inequitable positive outcomes for men compared to women, and an increase in women’s smoking with associated morbidity and mortality. Gender equitable progress in combatting the tobacco epidemic will not be possible without resolving the gender bias, stigmatization, sexism and lack of intersectionality that plague tobacco control policy, research and interventions for cessation and harm reduction.

This paper provides an updated global overview of current trends in women’s tobacco use and comprehensively details the persistent structural barriers in tobacco control and science that limit their capacity to effectively analyze and address tobacco use and its impact on women.

As women’s position in the economy and society is often explained by cultural factors, this study aims to verify whether the observed changes in female empowerment in the region of Central and East European (CEE) countries of the European Union (EU) are associated with masculinity as a cultural trait.

The authors apply the k-means clustering method to group CEE countries into clusters with similar levels of female empowerment in two time points – 2013 and 2019. Next, the authors examine the clusters and cross-reference them with the national culture’s masculinity to explore the interrelations between female empowerment and cultural traits in the CEE countries and their development in time.

The analyses reveal that female empowerment is not uniform or stable across the CEE countries. The masculinity level is not strongly related to women’s position in these countries, and changes in female empowerment are not closely linked to masculinity.

Despite the tumultuous history of women’s empowerment in the CEE countries, the issues related to gender equality and cultural traits pertaining to the region are relatively understudied in the literature. By focusing on the CEE region, the authors fill the gap in examining the independencies between female empowerment and cultural masculinity.

The paper aims to contribute to the broader literature on just transition by examining the intersection of technology and justice, and identifying opportunities for bridging the gap between theory and practice. The work seeks to emphasize the importance of transformative change, which ensures that no individual, community or sector is left behind in the transition towards a sustainable future, both on a global and local scale.

The paper explores the potential for linking justice to the ongoing technological transition, focusing on its impacts on climate and sustainability. Drawing on various sociological, environmental and technological studies, this work examines the intersections between justice and technological change. Through a qualitative analysis of case studies and a review of literature, the article offers insights and recommendations for policymakers, practitioners and scholars involved in the pursuit of a sustainable and equitable future.

The paper concludes that balancing environmental, social and economic goals is necessary on a large scale within the framework of a “just transition”, in order to ensure that no individual, community or sector is left behind in the path to a sustainable future. This involves reflecting on sensitive issues such as competition, intellectual property, market openness, liability and fighting against inequalities. Additionally, it requires considering smart and welfare policies from a multilevel perspective.

The originality of this work lies in its contribution to advancing the understanding of the limitations of a technology-centric approach to climate action and the need for systemic changes. The paper emphasizes the importance of addressing social equity, policy reform and collective action in conjunction with technological transition to achieve a sustainable future. It highlights the risks of overlooking the systemic drivers of the climate crisis, such as unsustainable consumption patterns and reliance on fossil fuels, while pursuing technological solutions. Furthermore, the work emphasizes the relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 in guiding a just transition towards sustainability.

This study compares the performance of female majority-owned new ventures (FNV) vs. male majority-owned new ventures (MNV). It analyzes the differences in levels of variables such as education, the same industry work experience of owners, and other venture level attributes between FNVs and MNVs. More importantly, this study employs decomposition techniques to determine the individual contribution from the intergender difference of each attribute on the performance of the new venture. For example, the study finds that, on average, the owners of an MNV possessed 3.4 years more of the same industry work experience than their FNV counterparts. This difference in work experience accounted for 47% of the “explained” gap [1] in Net Profits between the FNVs and MNVs.

This paper utilizes the Kauffman Firm Survey, a longitudinal dataset of 4,928 new ventures started in the USA in 2004. It employs Blinder-Oaxaca and Fairlie decomposition techniques in conjunction with OLS and Logit regressions. Both methods provide point estimates of contributions to the performance gap due to the heterogeneity in each attribute across the groups (FNV and MNV). This approach has a significant advantage over OLS or mediation analysis, which can only provide a directional analysis of the contributions of differences in attributes to performance.

The paper finds no performance gap between MNVs and FNVs. It further investigates whether the heterogeneous characteristics of MNVs vs FNVs are related to different effects on survival and performance. It finds that characteristics such as owners’ work experience in the same industry, average hours worked by owners in the new venture, the technology level of the venture, and its incorporation status are related with a differential impact on new venture survival and performance.

All firms in the dataset belonged to a single cohort (2004) of new ventures started in the US. Future studies are encouraged to develop a dataset from multiple geographies and founding over several years so that the results may be more generalizable.

The paper provides crucial practical guidance to policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs. In general, policies that enhance the work experience of women entrepreneurs and provide access to infrastructure such as daycares, which may allow them to work more hours, would probably improve the performance of FNVs.

The paper furthers the literature on women entrepreneurship by analyzing point estimates of differential contribution of disparate variables to performance. From a methodological perspective, the study reconciles the results between regression and decomposition analyses.

Despite immigrant-receiving countries' need for skilled professionals to meet labour demands, research suggests that many skilled migrants undergo deskilling, downward career mobility, underemployment, unemployment and talent waste, finding themselves in low-skilled occupations that are not commensurate to their education and experience. Skilled immigrant women face additional gendered disadvantages, including a disproportionate domestic burden, interrupted careers and gender segmentation in occupations and organizations. This study explores how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic impacted skilled newcomer women's labour market outcomes and work experiences.

The authors draw on 50 in-depth questionnaires with skilled women to elaborate on their work experiences during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic pushed skilled immigrant women towards unemployment, lower-skilled or less stable employment. Most study participants had their career trajectory delayed, interrupted or reversed due to layoffs, decreased job opportunities and increased domestic burden. The pandemic's gendered nature and the reliance on work-from-home arrangements and online job search heightened immigrant women's challenges due to limited social support and increased family responsibilities.

This paper adds to the conversation of increased integration challenges under pandemic conditions by contextualizing the pre-pandemic literature on immigrant work integration to the pandemic environment. Also, this paper contributes a better understanding of the gender dynamics informing the COVID-19 socio-economic climate.

Farmers are the largest group of financially excluded persons in Nigeria, thereby highlighting the supply shortfall in finance to agriculture in Nigeria. Availability of finance would go a long way in improving output and productivity in agriculture, and consequently help in reducing poverty. This study conducts an empirical investigation of the effects of financial inclusion on agricultural productivity in Nigeria.

This study makes use of the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). This is a new data set on agricultural households which contains information on agricultural activities and various household activities, including banking, savings and insurance behaviour. Considering the data are such that there are observations for households over three time periods, the study exploits the time series and cross-section dimension of the data by using panel data estimation.

The empirical results of the study show that financial inclusion, irrespective of how it is measured, has exerted positive and statistically significant effects on agricultural productivity in Nigeria.

While considerable research has been conducted to examine how finance affects broad macroeconomic aggregates, little is known about the effects of finance at the household and individual level. It is important to explicitly account for financial inclusion when examining the effects of finance on individuals and households. This study improves on existing research and offers new insights into the effects of financial inclusion on the economic activities of agricultural households in Nigeria.