As legislatures approach gender parity in different parts of the world, questions remain about whether institutional cultures support equal epistemic authority for women. In the French National Assembly, modern republicanism promotes depersonalized representation: deputies are expected to embody the universal citizen, with gender embedded but not defining. Drawing on 24 interviews with deputies elected before and after the 2017 elections, this article develops a feminist institutionalist framework to show how women navigate tensions between republican expectations that demand conformity to masculinized neutrality and pluralist norms that confine authority to “women’s issues.” We introduce the concept of epistemic double bind to theorize this dilemma and present a typology of role expectations and strategic responses that captures how deputies negotiate it. Our findings show that even in more gender-balanced legislatures, women face enduring constraints on epistemic authority. France serves as a critical case for understanding the practical demands of depersonalized representation and how actors reconfigure its contradictions in institutions shaped by parity laws.

This study investigated the hypothesis that milk quality traits and milk proteolytic activity vary with lactation number in dairy cows. Milk was collected from 109 individual cows, 20 Swedish Holstein and 89 Swedish Red, from 12 commercial Swedish farms. Samples were analysed individually and grouped into three lactation categories: lactations 1–2 (N = 56), lactations 3–4 (N = 32) and lactations ≥5 (N = 21). The principal finding was that plasmin (PL) activity increased markedly with advancing lactation number, with significantly higher activity observed in cows in lactations 3–4 and ≥5 compared with those in lactations 1–2 (P < 0.001). Although plasminogen (PG) concentrations tended to decrease with increasing lactation number, this trend did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.298). As a result, the PG-to-PL ratio decreased progressively with advancing lactation (P < 0.001), indicating increased proteolytic potential in milk from older cows. Lactation number also had a clear influence on milk protein composition. The proportion of total casein decreased steadily across lactation groups, while the proportion of whey proteins increased (P ≤ 0.004). Within the casein fractions, total β-casein declined significantly from lactations 1–2 to ≥5 (P < 0.001), whereas the relative amount of β-casein B increased with lactation number (P = 0.003). The proportions of αs2-casein and κ-casein were highest in cows with lactations ≥5 (P ≤ 0.019). Among whey proteins, α-lactalbumin increased markedly with lactation number (P < 0.001), and β-lactoglobulin showed an increasing, although statistically non-significant, tendency (P = 0.071). Gross milk composition was unaffected by lactation number; however, somatic cell count (SCC) increased significantly in cows in lactations 3–4 and ≥5 compared with lactations 1–2 (P = 0.002). Overall, advancing stage of lactation was associated with enhanced PL-mediated proteolysis, shifts in milk protein profile and higher SCCs, whereas the basic milk composition remained stable.

The aim of this study was to characterize the physiological variation of somatic cell count (SCC) and milk somatic cell subsets in relation to total bacterial count and milk production parameters, in mastitis-free local Greek ewes. To this end, we studied the SCC, daily milk yield and composition, milk somatic cell subset distribution and total bacterial count in the milk of first and second parity Frizarta ewes, at different lactation stages. As there is a total lack of evidence for differential milk somatic cell distribution in local Greek ewes, we chose to study the Frizarta breed, one of the most promising local sheep breeds, extensively reared in Western Greece, highly productive and well adapted to geoclimatic conditions. Partial correlation analysis was performed between SCC and somatic cell subtype populations with milk yield, composition and total bacterial count. Total SCC in Frizarta ewes ranged between 35 and 74 × 103 cells/ml and was significantly influenced by lactation stage and parity number. Neutrophils and lymphocytes were the most abundant immune cell types followed by mammary epithelial cells and macrophages. A positive association of bacterial count with neutrophils and macrophages and a negative association with lymphocytes were observed. Finally, a negative association between total bacterial count with daily milk yield was detected. Our data forms the basis for understanding how parity and stage of lactation affects different immune and epithelial cell populations in the milk of healthy Frizarta ewes and can be used in future studies investigating the effect of the health status on differential cell count in ewe milk.

In this article, we generalize Andrews’ partitions separated by parity to overpartitions in two ways. We investigate the generating functions for $16$ overpartition families whose parts are separated by parity, and we prove various q-series identities for these functions. These identities include relations to modular forms, q-hypergeometric series, and mock modular forms.

Noting a curious link between Andrews’ even-odd crank and the Stanley rank, we adopt a combinatorial approach building on the map of conjugation and continue the study of integer partitions with parts separated by parity. Our motivation is twofold. Firstly, we derive results for certain restricted partitions with even parts below odd parts. These include a Franklin-type involution proving a parametrized identity that generalizes Andrews’ bivariate generating function, and two families of Andrews–Beck type congruences. Secondly, we introduce several new subsets of partitions that are stable (i.e. invariant under conjugation) and explore their connections with three third-order mock theta functions $\omega (q)$, $\nu (q)$, and $\psi ^{(3)}(q)$, introduced by Ramanujan and Watson.

There is a dearth of women judges sitting on international courts and tribunals. This contribution pays attention to the question of why judicial gender matters. Demonstrating that sex-based differences play an important part in judging has challenged even the most committed essentialists. Legitimacy-based arguments are deemed inadequate in so far as they fail to address the structures of power and discrimination that create exclusions. In this contribution, I argue that the dearth of women judges matters because it is both symptom and cause of the highly gendered way in which international law and international institutions operate. Drawing on Erika Rackley’s early work in which metaphor is used to reveal the gendered nature of the judicial role, I call forth the idea of the totemic judge of international law whose male gender is rendered invisible and unremarked and who functions to enrobe the gendered norms and institutions of international law. The female judge, conversely, is a disruptive force as her very presence places gender in the frame. Drawing on accounts from international courts and from the Feminist Judgments in International Law project, this contribution concludes that an approach to judging that acknowledges and challenges structures of power – including gender – contains transformative potential. However, it is potential that must find a way to operate within significant institutional and normative constraints.

Women’s ability to negotiate for safer sex has effects on their sexual and reproductive health. This study investigated the association between safer sex negotiation and parity among women in sub-Saharan Africa. The data were sourced from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 28 sub-Saharan African countries conducted from 2010 to 2019. A total of 215,397 women aged 15–49 were included in the study. Multilevel logistic analysis was conducted to examine the association between safer sex negotiation and parity among women in sub-Saharan Africa. The results were presented as adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and the significance level set at p<0.05. The overall prevalences of safer sex negotiation and high parity among women in sub-Saharan Africa were 82.7% and 52.1%, respectively. The prevalence of high parity ranged from 32.3% in Chad to 72.1% in Lesotho. The lowest prevalence of safer sex negotiation was in Chad (16.8%) while the highest prevalence was recorded in Rwanda (99.7%). Women who had the capacity to negotiate for safer sex were less likely to have high parity compared with those who had no capacity to negotiate for safer sex (aOR = 0.78, CI: 0.75–0.81). Other factors that were associated with high parity were age, educational level, marital status, exposure to media, contraceptive use, religion, wealth quintile, sex of household head, and place of residence. The study identified significant association between safer sex negotiation and high parity among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa. It is worth noting that women’s ability to negotiate for safer sex could reduce high parity among women in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, policies and programmes aimed at birth control or reducing high parity among women could be targeted at improving their capacity to negotiate for safer sex through education.

This article investigates the representativeness of news coverage when there are nearly as many female candidates as there are male candidates by considering the 2018 Québec Election, in which 47 per cent of candidates were women. We are interested not only in the magnitude of the coverage (that is, the volume of press coverage received by each candidate) but also in its tone (if the press coverage is negative or positive) and whether these parameters fluctuate based on the gender of the candidates. We know that the quality of the news coverage, and more specifically its tone, can affect voting intentions. We also know that journalists routinely portray politics as a masculine activity, but we know very little about the coverage that local female candidates receive in the context of parity in North America. We find that in spite of exceptional circumstances, female candidates received significantly less coverage than men.