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The purpose of this paper is to examine the experiences of gender bias among women hospital CEOs and explore to what these female leaders attribute their success within a male-dominated hospital executive leadership milieu.

This qualitative study involved 12 women hospital CEOs from across Ontario, Canada. Purposeful sampling techniques and in-depth qualitative interview methods were used to facilitate discussion around experiences of gender and leadership.

Responses fell into two groups: the first group represented the statement “Gender inequality is alive and well”. The second group reflected the statement “Gender inequity is not significant, did not happen to me, and things are better now”. This group contained a sub-group with no consciousness of systemic discrimination and that claimed having no gendered experiences in their leadership journey. The first group described gender issues in various contexts, from the individual to the systemic. The second group was ambivalent about gender as a factor impacting leadership trajectories.

Representations of women’s leadership have become detached from feminism, with major consequences for women. This study reveals how difficult it is for some women CEOs to identify gender bias. The subtle everyday norms and practices within the workplace make it difficult to name and explain gender bias explicitly and may explain the challenges in understanding how it might affect a woman’s career path.

The purpose of this paper is to assess multidimensional body image concerns in a sample of obese women seeking bariatric surgery at an outpatient hospital clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

A sample of obese adult women seeking bariatric surgery at an outpatient medical clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (n=148) completed various self-report measures of body image concerns, including body image dysphoria, body image quality of life, body image investment, and appearance satisfaction. Participant scores were compared to normative data. Correlations between body image concern measures and body mass index (BMI) were examined.

Participants endorsed more body image dysphoria, more negative body image quality of life, and less appearance satisfaction than normative samples. BMI was not correlated with body image concern scores.

Interventions aimed at reducing body image disturbance in obese women should target multiple components of body image concern. Decisions about who should receive interventions should not be based on BMI status.

The majority of research on body image concerns focuses exclusively on evaluative constructs such as body image dissatisfaction. The current study examined affective, cognitive, and behavioural body image constructs. A better understanding of the multidimensional nature of body image concerns in obese women seeking bariatric surgery informs the development of effective, targeted interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on body image and aging among older women. Using existing qualitative research, this paper explores how aging affects body image and how women respond to body image issues as they age.

Multiple databases were used to locate original and review articles on the topics of body image and aging, with a target population of women ages 60 years and older. The findings of the literature search were compiled, summarized and sorted to create themes.

Women struggle with body image issues throughout their lives. Women tend to perceive age-related changes in appearance negatively, as a threat to their identity and social value. This is due, in part, to the sociocultural environment, which pressures women to “fight” aging and maintain an ideal (young and thin) image at all costs. Some women do come to terms with their aging body and report increased self-acceptance with age. However, others turn to various forms of body work (e.g. dieting, hair dye, makeup) in order to maintain their value in an appearance-based society.

Poor body image can affect older women's emotional, psychological and physical health and overall well-being. Health care professionals, community workers and policy makers need to be made aware of these issues so that they can respond appropriately.

There has been limited research exploring body image among older women. This paper identifies gaps in the literature and suggests avenues for future research in this area.

There is a gap in the understanding of relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), urban-rural differences, ethnicity and eating disorder symptomatology. This gap has implications for access to treatment and the effectiveness of treatment. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Data are presented from a major Canadian survey, analyzing the impact of body mass index (BMI), urban-non-urban residency, income, and ethnicity on eating disorder symptomatology.

One of the strongest findings is that high income non-White women expressed less eating disorder symptomatology than lower income non-White women.

Future research needs to consider how factors such as urban residency, exposure to Western “thinness” ideals, and income differentials impact non-White women.

Effective treatment of ethnic minority women requires an appreciation of complicated effects of “culture clash,” income and BMI on eating disorder symptomatology.

This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by examining relationships between SES (income) and eating disorder symptomatology in White and non-White Canadian women. The review of the scientific literature on ethnic differences in eating disorder symptomatology revealed a disparity gap in treatment. This disparity may be a by-product of bias and lack of understanding of gender or ethnic/cultural differences by practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether reading a self-help chapter on the body's regulation of weight can change weight control beliefs, and whether such changes in turn predict improvements in body dissatisfaction and self-esteem.

Participants of a mixed racial sample of undergraduate college women (n=154) completed measures of personal weight control beliefs, body dissatisfaction, self-esteem and knowledge before and after they read a self-help education chapter.

Exposure to the education was associated with improvement in knowledge, body dissatisfaction and self-esteem and change in weight control beliefs. Increase in the belief in “striving for a healthy lifestyle with acceptance of one's natural weight” predicted improvement in body dissatisfaction and self-esteem.

This paper provides preliminary evidence that realistic information about weight control can impact weight control beliefs, and that this in turn is associated with improvement in body satisfaction and self-esteem. The major limitation of the study is the lack of control group to ensure changes are not due to factors like social desirability. Future directions would be to replicate this research using a control group, and to look at the role of education and weight control beliefs in eating disordered and bariatric populations.

This is the first study to look at the impact of providing young women with realistic information about the body's regulation of weight and weight loss outcomes on their beliefs about weight control, body dissatisfaction and self-esteem. This information is valuable for health care providers and educators working with young women.

Evidence suggests high rates of psychiatric disorders in bariatric surgery candidates (e.g. Mitchell et al., 2012), although no rigorous studies have examined the prevalence in a Canadian sample. Improved understanding of the prevalence of psychopathology among female patients is an important area of study, as females comprise approximately 80 percent of surgical candidates (Martin et al., 2010; Padwal, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to assess the prevalence of Axis I disorders and associations with quality of life in a Canadian sample of female bariatric surgery candidates.

Female patients (n=257) were assessed using a structured psychodiagnostic interview and completed a health-related quality of life questionnaire.

Results indicated that 57.2 percent of patients met DSM-IV-TR criteria for a lifetime psychiatric disorder and 18.3 percent met criteria for a current psychiatric disorder. Major depressive disorder was the most common lifetime psychiatric disorder (35.0 percent) and binge eating disorder was the most prevalent current psychiatric disorder (6.6 percent). Patients scored significantly lower than Canadian population norms on all domains of the SF-36 (all p's<0.001). Patients with a current Axis I disorder also reported significantly worse functioning on four mental health domains and one physical health domain (p's<0.01) compared to patients without a current Axis I disorder.

Results confirm high rates of psychiatric disorders in Canadian female bariatric surgery candidates and provide evidence for associated functional health impairment. Further study is needed to elucidate how pre-operative psychopathology may impact female patients’ post-operative outcomes.

Lifestyle change to improve physical health is a significant challenge in secure psychiatric hospitals for women. In addition to factors that contribute to an obesogenic environments body image, self-care, self-esteem, and motivational problems compound efforts to increase physical activity and to lose weight. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Two elements of a comprehensive programme to improve physical health and mental wellbeing are discussed. The first describes the development of a unique role of self-care and body image therapists and an evaluation of the effects of treatment. The second describes initiatives to assess the environmental and therapeutic milieu contingencies that impact on physical activity and to increase engagement in exercise through motivational strategies.

Research within the current settings has resulted in a validation of the role of the self-care and body image therapist. Other evaluations have described the environmental contingencies that impact on physical activity along with strategies to increase exercise participation.

While much has to be learnt about how to translate awareness of the value of a healthy lifestyle for women into positive behaviour change the programme described represents part of a comprehensive and long term attempt to evaluate and improve the physical wellbeing of women in secure care.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse pro-anorexia from a discursive, metaphorical standpoint in order to enable an understanding of how pro-anorexia functions as political resistance through technological bodies.

Techno-metaphor is used to reveal how pro-anorexic communities online function through technology.

Six techno-metaphors work to construct pro-anorexic cyborg embodiment through technology. This pro-anorexic cyborg embodiment offers relief from the tensions of patriarchal femininity and provides control over troublesome embodiment. Technology enables women experiencing anorexia to resist the dominant interpretations of their lived experience that subjugate them.

This research offers an understanding of pro-anorexia as resistance to intolerable femininity and reconstructed female bodies through technology. By exploiting technological political space, pro-anorexics are claiming positions and forms of embodiment previously off-limits to women and their biological bodies.