Mauritius: gender roles and statuses

Division of Labor by Gender. The economic success of industry has led to low unemployment rates. This has changed the workplace and home life as women joined the workforce. This industrialization also led to women being promoted faster. According to the Minister of Women, Family Welfare, and Child Development, a quarter of all managers are now women.
Women are the traditional homekeepers of the society. Between 1985 and 1991 the number of women working outside the home increased from 22 percent to 41 percent.
With that trend continuing, hired housekeeping and child care have become relatively new and important industries. The Relative Status of Women and Men. Historically, women have had subordinate roles in Mauritian society. However, the constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on sex, and women now have access to education, employment, and governmental services. In March 1998 the Domestic Violence Act was passed. This gave greater protection and legal authority to combat domestic abuse. In that same year it also became a crime to abandon one’s family or pregnant spouse for more than two months, not to pay food support, or to engage in sexual harassment.
Women are underrepresented in the government. The National Assembly has seventy seats, of which women hold five.

Questões como o papel de homens e mulheres na sociedade contemporânea vêm sendo debatidas de diferentes pontos de vista, influenciados por valores específicos de cada sociedade. Nas Ilhas Maurício, esses valores sustentam a tomada de decisão em torno da :

New vaccine could fight nicotine addiction
Cigarette smokers who are having trouble quitting because of nicotine’s addictive power may some day be able to receive a novel antibody-producing vaccine to help them kick the habit. The average cigarette contains about 4 000 different chemicals that — when burned and inhaled — cause the serious health problems associated with smoking. But it is the nicotine in cigarettes that, like other addictive substances, stimulates rewards centers in the brain and hooks smokers to the pleasurable but dangerous routine. Ronald Crystal, who chairs the department of genetic medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York, where researchers are developing a nicotine vaccine, said the idea is to stimulate the smoker’s immune system to produce antibodies or immune proteins to destroy the nicotine molecule before it reaches the brain.

Muitas pessoas tentam parar de fumar, mas fracassam e sucumbem ao vício. Na tentativa de ajudar os fumantes, pesquisadores da Weill-Cornell Medical College estão desenvolvendo uma vacina que