A report by GEA’s Policy Officer Miriam David, with Jessica Ringrose and Victoria Showunmi
October- December 2010
Continue reading “Browne Report + the White Paper = A Murky Outlook for Educational Equality”
DIANA LEONARD: FEMINIST ACTIVIST, ACADEMIC SOCIOLOGIST AND EDUCATOR
Diana Mary Leonard, who has died aged 68 of endometrial cancer after a stubborn struggle, was a feisty and fiery feminist academic and activist. She was one of the originators of feminist sociology in the academy, organising the first British Sociological Association (BSA) conference on what was then known as sexual divisions in 1974. She never looked back from this early immersionin feminist politics and developed collaborative feminist practices in theorising, researching and political campaigning. A long and hard fight to get into and establish feminist scholarship, practices and pedagogies in the academy made her a strong and uncompromising leader of radical feminist activism and academic work in higher education. Diana was of a particular generation of activists who were first involved in the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was also a broad-ranging social scientist, having started in anthropology before moving on to sociology, as well as education from the late 1960s to the present, retiring from her post as Professor of Sociology of Education and Gender at the Institute of Education, University of London, three years ago. But she never actually retired and, with her emeritus status, and visiting professorship at the Centre for Higher Education Equity Research, University of Sussex, from 2008, she continued actively to engage with global feminist debates, theories and practices, having established a fearsome feminist agenda. This involvement ranged across continents from her early studies on French materialist feminism, to work in Canada and the USA, to Australia, Greece, Ireland, Israel and the Gender Equity Task Force in South Africa (1997), and at the Fatimah Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan (2005-7). Continue reading “DIANA LEONARD: FEMINIST ACTIVIST, ACADEMIC SOCIOLOGIST AND EDUCATOR”
Taking action: keeping violence against women and girls on the education agenda
The Coalition Government has just published a ‘strategic narrative’ on violence against women and girls. This should be followed by an action plan next Spring.
Follow the link which provides template letters and campaign leaflets on keeping violence against women and girls on the education agenda
Are girls victims of their own sexual agency? Sexualisation, sexual violence and schooling
On the 15th October the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) organisation called upon the Coalition Government to urgently address the “alarming levels” of sexual harassment and violence against young women in schools. Their YouGov 2010 online survey of 788 16-18 year olds found that a third (29%) of young women reported unwanted sexual touching at school and witnessed routine sexual name-calling on a daily or twice-weekly basis. Over a quarter (28%) said they had seen sexual pictures on mobile phones at school twice a month or more. In the same month, Girl Guiding UK continued to fight the sexualisation of girl culture by delivering a 25,000 signature petition to Downing Street calling for the Government to introduce compulsory labelling for all airbrushed images. This concern addressed the findings from their Girls’ Attitudes Survey, in which 50% of the girls reported that they would consider having surgery to change their looks and more than half had been bullied for their appearance. Indeed, the impact of ‘sexualisation’ upon girls and young women has become the subject of high profile controversial reports and inquiries from a number of government and non-governmental bodies (Home Office 2010). Continue reading “Are girls victims of their own sexual agency? Sexualisation, sexual violence and schooling”
Slovak feminists are doing it for themselves
Earlier this week, while on a visit to Slovakia, I was able to visit ASPEKT, a feminist educational and publishing organization based in the capital, Bratislavia, Slovakia (the southern part of what was known as the former Czechoslovakia). Continue reading “Slovak feminists are doing it for themselves”
‘Rage of the Girl Rioters’?
Everyday there seems to be yet more depressing news for education in the UK. Yesterday saw more rushed ideological notions of bringing soldiers into the classrooms, destroying teacher education within Higher Education, and reconfiguring the national curriculum yet again.
Schoolchildren and students were also active in walking out of lessons, taking to the streets and occupying campuses. These actions are in response to massive hikes in tuition fees in Higher Education, and the abolishment of the Educational Maintenance Allowance in Further Education. Curiously, an article in the the Daily Mail has focused on the gendering of these protests, highlighting the actions of rioting girls. Perhaps we are seeing a new wave of youth and female led activism? I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts
Boys, Boys, Boys!
This month the UK newspapers have been awash with stories about the (supposedly) ever-decreasing ‘gender gap’. Indeed, several key reports relating to equalities issues have been released in the past month, all of which have been discussed at great length in the British media. Of greatest international significance, perhaps, have been the reports surrounding the progress made against the millennium development goals (a set of goals which were proposed by world leaders back in the year 2000 and were revisited last month as these leaders returned to New York for the UN summit, Singer 2010). Although a number of scholars have pointed to the fact that the success of achieving these goals has largely been attributable to moving the goalposts, the positive news reported last week was that gender parity in education was being achieved and in ways which had substantial effects upon the ability to reach other goals (e.g. infant mortality rates). Continue reading “Boys, Boys, Boys!”
A Summer Conference Season of Gender and Education Keynote Speeches
This summer has seen a number of feminist scholars give key note speeches relating to issues of gender and education at a range of academic conference. Fitting in with the theme ‘Education and Cultural Change’ Professor Floya Anthias from Roehampton University was invited to reflect on issues of ‘identity, belonging and culture in the modern era’ at the European Conference on Education Research. This year the conference was held in Helsinki, Finland. Professor Anthias delivered a paper titled: ‘Intersections and translocations:new paradigms for thinking about identities and inequalities’ . The talk attracted a large audience and continued to be debated well into the evening social event. An abstract for the speech and a digital recording can be found on the European Education Research Association website. Continue reading “A Summer Conference Season of Gender and Education Keynote Speeches”
Grandma was a Suffragette: one woman’s part in the Votes for Women campaign
A presentation by Barbara Andrew, feminist, socialist, trade unionist, community activist and proud grand-daughter of Thirza Cove, militant London Suffragette Continue reading “Grandma was a Suffragette: one woman’s part in the Votes for Women campaign”
Education for Change Seminar
On 23rd June 2010 UCU, the union which represents academic and academic-related staff in further and higher education in the UK, held a day seminar entitled ‘Education for Change: preparing an activist agenda to promote a new education for women’. Continue reading “Education for Change Seminar”